Space Elevator or Mass Driver/Railgun or something else.

[UltraVires]

Interesting discussion... especially when you consider how unlikely most of these things are to ever be built...

A Mass Driver is probably the most realistic of the options, as the US Navy has been building Rail Guns for the past 20 years, (they still can't build one that can survive firing it's first shot tho...) and most of the needed technology and construction work is already within our capabilities. But those of you who've read "the Moon is a Harsh Mistress" By Hienlien, will already know that a Mass Driver, even intended for cargo, spacecraft etc, could quite easily be turned into a terrifying weapon of mass destruction. That's the most likely reason none will ever be built... Imagine a Cargo Mass Driver on the surface of the Moon, taken over by Terrorists... Not a good day for anyone on Earth...

Laser Propulsion systems run into the same problem. Any Laser powerful enough to lift a large mass into orbit, would also probably be powerful enough to damage that object, or other objects it happened to swing past... like Satellites etc... I know most people today, are all about the peaceful uses of Lasers, since real military Laser Systems are just now coming online (Google "FireStrike") but let's all remember that research on lasers, though begun in the 50-60's, really took off in the 80s-90s because of Star-Wars (SDI, not the movies... ). Laser's are intended as weapons. Whether or not the "man in the street" thinks that or not, Governments do.

The Space Elevator seems more practical (and peaceful) until you consider that actual work which would have to be done to build one. It would be the Greatest Construction Project in Human history. You'd have to build a tower, 3600 KM high... There are no known building materials (except artificial diamond) that can handle the kind of stress and strain that would be placed on such a structure. I know some people will say "Carbon Nano-tubes!" and I agree they show promise. But it takes literally weeks just to "grow" a few dozen nano-tubes. Until we can make sheets of artificial diamond, or nano-tubes, like we make sheets of ply-wood now, there won't be any space elevators.

For the immediately foreseeable future (IE: the next 50 years or so) good old Fashioned Rockets will still be the best way to get something into orbit.

Personally, My money is on Anti-Gravity...

I know most people will say "that's pure Science Fiction" and right now... it is. But remember all those egg heads at CERN... They have pretty much "found" the Higgs Boson, they are just confirming it to the n'th degree (like scientists should ) I know that doesn't seem like much, but it's the particle that gives objects mass.... and hence, Gravity. We learned to make and use electricity long before we know that "Electrons" were responsible for it, and our ability to manipulate electrons is what makes all of modern civilization work, not to mention this message board... Imagine what could be could be possible if we could alter the mass of objects at will... Something to think about.

Edited November 19, 2013 by UltraVires

[Smidge204]

I always wondered if there would be problem with tectonic movement when building Space elevator, becouse for example africa is slowly moving towards europe etc.

Some designs do not actually require the cable to be anchored to the planet, as the center of mass for the entire structure would be in geosynch orbit. You would literally have a tether dangling down out of the clear blue sky. What you'd do is attach the free end of the tether to a movable ocean platform instead, just to keep it from being blown around and to give you a platform to load/unload stuff.

=Smidge=

[Requiem762]

I always wondered if there would be problem with tectonic movement when building Space elevator, becouse for example africa is slowly moving towards europe etc.But on the other hand i can easely imagine cableless space elevator which would work for example like maglev train. You could achive much higher velocities while traveling up.

I always thought that the way to go would be something similar to what you had described and was demonstrated in MSG:00. One long cylinder with multiple maglev tracks inside.

[SargeRho]

A space elevator would be incredibly useful. But I think so far, only Carbyne would be strong enough for a cable. "Cheap" SSTO transport would be a viable alternative I think.

A 3km long mass driver could accelerate a spacecraft carrier to a substantial portion of the speed needed to reach orbit, without killing the crew. You could even speed it up for cargo. Shortly before leaving the track, the carrier ignites its scramjet or rocket engines that then put it into a rather shallow suborbital trajectory. A 2nd stage is released, and does the rest of the way to Orbit. A mass driver might make an SSTO more viable too though, where it'd technically become a 2STO as it'd use the mass driver as first stage.

Edited November 19, 2013 by SargeRho

[breakthrough]

Space fountain seems the most plausible of the things I've read about.

Rail-gun-assisted SSTO like SargeRho said might be a contender too.