space elevator

so right now space elevators won't work because there is no substance strong enough to build a wire from earth to geosync orbit.  so I was thinking:  what if we were to place a wire around the planet at LEO?  the wire would spin and we could use it to push against while lifting objects up.  also, the wire could carry a small current around it so as to raise itself up inbetween lifts and maintain a stable orbit using the earth's magnetic field.

Will the Earth's orbit of the sun cause it to crash into Earth?

shouldn't, for the same reason it doesnt do this to any other orbiting body.  this would be true if the ring was stationary (unstable equilibrium), but a spinning body has different properties.

This reminds me a little of 3001: The Final Oddessey, I think it was...

>>1
"so right now space elevators won't work because there is no substance strong enough to build a wire from earth to geosync orbit"

Sure there is. Carbon nanotubes.

from what i've heard they have some sort of diamond wire that's supposed to safely be able to withstand the pressure.

how the fuck do you make rope out of diamonds, anyway?

"Fiber materials such as graphite, alumina, and quartz have exhibited tensile strengths greater than 20 GPa (Giga-Pascals, a unit of measurement for tensile strength) during laboratory testing for cable tethers. The desired strength for the space elevator is about 62 GPa."

"Above: Carbon nanotube (CNT) is a new form of carbon, equivalent to a flat graphene sheet rolled into a tube. CNT exhibits extraordinary mechanical properties: the Young's modulus is over 1 Tera-Pascal and the estimated tensile strength is 200 Giga-Pascals."

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast07sep_1.htm

so carbon nanotubes will work...IF you can get them to form the rope needed, and IF they don't explode on you.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2219

>>7
HA HA I'M IN YOUR SPACE ELEVATOR TAKING PICTURES OF YOUR TUBES

>>5
now go manufacture one for me........

as of now, no technology exists to make them a few centimeters long, let alone the many miles needed

IM IN URE SPACE EVELATOR STROKIN MY HARBL LLOLOLOL