9 years ago
1
Should we give up on the dream of space elevators?
Elon Musk is considered by many to be visionary – a pioneer of private exploration, and the man behind the Hyperloop concept to shoot people from Los Angeles to San Francisco in a metal tube in only 35 minutes. But there are some ideas that even he believes are too far-fetched. A space elevator is one of them. “This is extremely complicated. I don't think it's really realistic to have a space elevator,” said Musk during a conference at MIT last October, adding that it would be easier to...
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I hate the fatalist attitude that humanity seems to be taking towards space-ventures lately. Specifically Mars-One and the Space Elevator. If we as humans keep saying that we CANNOT do something, and don't even bother to try, we won't make great achievements. It seems like everyone is happy to just get a new iPhone every year and maybe a couple more MPGs on their car as the extent of their technological advancement. It's been over 40 years since we've had someone beyond LEO.
I remember how excited everyone was when Curiosity landed on Mars, and I was too, but to be honest, it wasn't the first time we landed a rover on Mars. To be fair, it was a great achievement, but it wasn't a great advancement. Since the Polar Lander crashed in 1999, we've successfully landed 5 consecutive times (including Beagle 2, which landed successfully, but failed to deploy communications gear, so was unable to complete it's mission).
The only time I would want to hear the term 'give up' is people talking about being healthier for lent by giving something up, or maybe our little war in the middle east. We could give up on that and I would be OK. We should never give up on advancing scientifically.