One of the bigger initiatives currently in vogue among technology geeks is the idea of a space elevator. The short version is that a cable would be suspended form a satellite in geosynchronous orbit. The cable would be attached to the earth near the equator. The satellite would be a sort of counter weight that would maintain tension on the cable.
And then a "climber" would climb the cable into space.
One of the primary obstacles to space exploration and exploitation is the expense of getting things into space. Current costs to get one pound of anything into space exceed US$11,000. The hope is that a space elevator will cut those costs to closer to US$100 per pound.
One of the early companies to research the technology required to construct such a system has announced that they want to build a space elevator....for the moon! We need to get back to the moon at some point and having an easy way to get people and equipment onto the moon as well as back off of it would certainly be a good step in the right direction.
And if we can build such a system for the moon and eventually for Earth, what is to stop us from doing the same thing on Mars?
For us science fiction geeks, life is good.
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