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Future skyscraper will hang from an Asteroid (Cloud City!)

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This is a very, very strong contender for worst idea of all time.
This qualifies for one of the worst ideas ever.
Legit one of the worst ideas I've ever heard, like holy shit.

KekzimlYjn4vS.gif
 

Derwind

Member
I'd rather build a colony settled in a Lagrange point on top of an asteroid. Far cooler to me to live a space colony life.
 

Hankodank

Member
while I agree that this is an absurd idea - it made me realize that "we" as a society don't see this kind of futuristic dreaming anymore. At least not like we did back in the 1950's and 60's...for example:
http://gizmodo.com/42-visions-for-tomorrow-from-the-golden-age-of-futurism-1683553063

I mean - it just seems like the height of our futuristic vision at this point is a better smartwatch...

Not sure if a building tethered to an asteroid is a great idea - but I wish that - in general - we saw more of this type of outlandish futuristic dreaming...
 

Alx

Member
So a 3 kms tall building hanging on to an asteroid thanks to cables hundreds of kilometers long ? How would you even "get an asteroid" ?
I'm sure this will happen.

More like tens of thousands kilometers long. Geosynchronous orbit is 36 000 km high, the cables would probably weigh more than the whole building.
 

Aselith

Member
And then a rogue terrorist cell crashes it into the Earth and causes a global catastrophe. Black Ops 4 in stores November 11th!
 

orava

Member
while I agree that this is an absurd idea - it made me realize that "we" as a society don't see this kind of futuristic dreaming anymore. At least not like we did back in the 1950's and 60's...for example:
http://gizmodo.com/42-visions-for-tomorrow-from-the-golden-age-of-futurism-1683553063

I mean - it just seems like the height of our futuristic vision at this point is a better smartwatch...

Not sure if a building tethered to an asteroid is a great idea - but I wish that - in general - we saw more of this type of outlandish futuristic dreaming...

This dreaming is called "science fiction".
 
This is like NASA students watching Michael Bay's Armageddon to spot all of the scientific inaccuracies. Every moment you look at this concept art, another question or problem arises. Like, it's almost an art in and of itself how amazingly impractical and mathematically improbable this is. It would literally be easier to colonize the moon than to suspend a giant fucking skyscraper from a low orbit asteroid for any period of time.

Like for real, what happens if someone on the bottom (top?) floor opens a window? Are there windows?
 

azyless

Member
More like tens of thousands kilomers long. Geosynchronous orbit is 36 000 km high, the cables would probably weigh more than the whole building.
Yeah I hadn't seen the part about it being geosynchronous. (How would it travel across the world then though ? isn't the point of geosynchronous orbit that they're always in the same point compared to Earth ?)
Anyway, 30 000 kilometers of cables seems realistic.
 

Croatoan

They/Them A-10 Warthog
Think of it as a VTOL space train.

Hah, yeah I understand how it works. What I don't understand is how it won't collapse if you look at it wrong and kill millions.

SSTO (single stage to orbit)

There's the Skylon at least.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(spacecraft)

skylonorbit2_1024.jpg


SpaceX style reusable heavy lifters are much more efficient though.

Thats a weird looking x-wing... :p Cool concept, now we just need to give it some aesthetic overhaul to make it a sell.
 
I actually laughed out loud at this nonsense.

Space elevators are kinda equally dumb, especially given America's track record with infrastructure maintenance.
 

Maedre

Banned
I actually laughed out loud at this nonsense.

Space elevators are kinda equally dumb, especially given America's track record with infrastructure maintenance.
Space elevators are not equally dumb. They are pretty much the best way to move something into orbit. It just comes down to basic research. Graphen is one milestone on our way to the stars... orbit ;). And someone who is able to build this will maintain the shit out of this.


But this building is nonsense.
 
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