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Space Elevators In America

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Since before the moon launch, America has been infatuated with winning at any cost. This competitive nature translates from war rooms to athletic fields to the top of corporate ladders. If this is truly our nation’s identity, then why have we not constructed a space elevator? A space elevator is one of the more extravagant ideas from sci-fi and now is being thought of by the capitol of our beloved country. The US must take the initiative and build a space elevator because it would allow travel into space at a cheaper price, act as a symbol of greatness for our country, and carry payloads of 11,193kg at once (allowing eight climbers to be sent up by the tether (Chang 2011)). The thought that a elevator could, or even should, stretch from …show more content…
Sending rockets and other objects into space has been extremely expensive, not to mention the dangerous possibilities of a launch. Space elevators offer a safer and cheaper argument into space exploration. The cost of building each single space elevator capsule would be around 2 billion dollars, compared to the 6.5 billion dollar rockets. The space elevator, once built, would allow for transportation directly to space in re-useable capsules. The technology to build this astounding mechanism has already been created by the Japanese, who claim that with “carbon nanotechnology” they will have a working space elevator by the year 2050. It costs roughly $22,000 every 1-kilometer to transport cargo into orbit, but a space elevator would dramatically reduce the cost for the same distance to just $200. The capabilities that the elevator would allow are endless since it is …show more content…
They have been ridiculed for decades but now many of their theories have proven to be factual therefore they can no longer be disregarded and ignored. Can we actually improve our environment through Space Elevators? (Rhetorical question) Reducing the reliance on these launch vehicles is key to stop the ozone depletion that has rapidly risen in the last few years. The vast majority of scientists will concur that the ozone layer around the earth protects us from harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun. If we don’t build a space elevator, we risk the continuation of life on this Earth (slippery slope fallacy); the space elevator can save space exploration and the world. Undertaking actions helpful to the environment like sending large numbers of solar powered satellites into space to collect sunlight and beam energy back down to Earth would be seen as less lavish. Others suggest that the elevator could be used to shuttle and dispose of nuclear waste. If supported, the space elevator could become the vehicle allowing us to explore the new

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