Saturday, January 20, 2007

Knocking on Heaven's Door

"There's a lady who's sure, all that glitters is gold, and she's buying a stairway to heaven . . ."
The grand illusion of depositing money into that heavenly account happens every Sunday in church. But the fact is, buying a trip on a stairway to heaven, or rather an elevator to the stars is not as impossible as it sounds. A space elevator, a concept popularized by Aurthur C. Clark in "The Fountain's of Paradise,' is actually closer to reality than science fiction - according to a recent Nova program I watched. I wonder how much a ticket to ride will cost? I wonder how safe the ride will be? But it might be a fairly good investment - I mean, even if the elevator doesn't make it safely to the top, the rider will be about 22,000 miles closer to heaven.

3 comments:

Brian Dunbar said...

I wonder how much a ticket to ride will cost? I wonder how safe the ride will be?

We don't think the first SE will be a passenger system - too expensive, too little return on investment.

The ticket price for cargo we're aiming for is $400 per pound. Which sounds expensive but the current cost is $10,000 per pound ...

As for safe - it should be safter than existing launch solutions which have a failure rate of around 85 - 95 percent.

Something we'll have to work on of course.

Brian Dunbar
Liftport

Susan Miller said...

Surely, it's easier than that! Have a great Sunday, Lindy.

Stewart Sternberg (half of L.P. Styles) said...

God said that if you don't go Sunday, let him know. I understand he also offers drive through and delivery.