/sci/ - Science & Math

>>15376577
I majored materials science mate. It's either going to happen through wild computational advances discovering magical compositions or not at all.
Earth is simply too big a gravity well to make it happen. The engineering doesn't add up, even if you can reach the holy grail of something strong enough that you can reliably build 40,000km long.
Launch loop is feasible today, and of a much smaller scale which is manageable, it's far more likely in the next century.

>>12482588
>There probably are no other realistic methods, this is a difficult problem, and the number of solutions to difficult problems is usually either exactly 0 or exactly 1.
A launch loop can be built with current technology and materials science, and would allow for massively cheaper orbital launch costs than conventional rockets - the only problem is the investment cost and finding somewhere to build the damn thing.

Space elevators are a meme, even more since pic related

>>10710901

Launch Loop. Its will be expensive as fuck, but at least remotely feasible with current tech, contrary to fantasies about space elevators/orbital rings. And if completed, the price reduction in cost to LEO would be massive.

>>10262488
Launch loops are an option, though not much easier than building a space elevator.