Carbon Nanotubes

I am getting extremely freaked out by the space elevator project. NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, Research for the Institute for Scientific Research and Eureka Scientific in Berkeley, California are planning to build an elevator that goes from Earth to space within the next 15 years. This is no "love in an elevator" elevator, this is an elevator on a cable made out of a carbon-nanotube-composite ribbon. Yes, a RIBBON, like the ones that Sarah loves to wear in her hair. Except this 62,000 mile long ribbon, made using nanotechnology, will transport a platform looking cable car up into SPACE. Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter on the molecular and atomic level. Carbon nanotubes provide the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any material ever seen, some 50 to 100 times stronger than steel and one-sixth the weight. There is a video demo you can watch of the elevator at work here. This shit is crazy and terrifying. They say that in the long run this is going to save money, because it costs more money to fund each space shuttle flight and it will eliminate disasters such as the Challenger and Columbia. I have a little theory though that this could be some sort of escape root for the wealthy, those that can afford to ride the elevator are going to go up there and live in outerspace or on the moon. So, instead of spending money on programs to help to poor, the biggest elevator known to man is being built and they are just going to escape and start an intergalatic war with us.
"It will change the world economy. It's worth what ever it costs to put it up," Westling said. An initial elevator, he added, is sure to give birth to even larger systems, capable of handling larger loads of up and down traffic."

Okay, this space website is awesome. You can watch live coverage of satelites in space near Saturn. When I lived with Liz in Takoma Park we had this TV station that was a constant feed from inside the space shuttle. So, you could turn this on at any time and watch real people inside the shuttle doing their space thing. Mostly, they were just sitting, but for some reason I found this station really relaxing.

We are leaving the geosynchronous orbit.