A Panama Canal Going Up?
Here’s an emerging sci-fi technology that’s beginning to shed some of its giggle factor — enough so that a year ago last fall, Arthur C. Clarke felt comfortable saying the following in a London Times column:
The space elevator was the central theme in my 1978 science-fiction novel The Fountains of Paradise (soon to be a Hollywood movie). When I wrote it, I considered it little more than a fascinating thought experiment. At that time, the only material from which it could be built — diamond — was not readily available in sufficient megaton quantities. This situation has now changed, with the discovery of the third form of carbon, C60, and its relatives, the Buckminsterfullerenes.
…As its most enthusiastic promoter, I am often asked when I think the first space elevator might be built. My answer has always been: about 50 years after everyone has stopped laughing. Maybe I should now revise it to 25 years.
Nova aired this story last month (Jan 9th) reporting some of the latest developments in the field. IEEE Spectrum published a feature article on it here. Actually building a space elevator today remains a feat for the fanciful, perhaps. But if this thing even remotely starts to materialize, watch out. The nation that moves first on such a lifting system could accrue enormous security and economic advantages, advantages that may well be insurmountable for those that choose to stand to the side. As such, how this story unfolds — if it does — has significant geo- and astrostrategic implications. Is it too early to begin considering some of them? Probably not.