How many years till they start (trying to) build one.

they probably wont

That's an incredibly stupid and short sighed answer. Just the thing people would come to expect from you.

Countries already have plans for it. Someone will be guarenteed to be one in the next 100 years.

This post was edited by Caedus on Oct 22 2011 11:02am

With all of the satellites in orbit around Earth, this seems implausible.

Only unused (inactive) sattalites would be a problem and theres already technology avaiable to prevent that. Meteorites would be a problem but the same technology that would prevent problems with space debris could be used agaisnt the meteors.

It is good to know that there is something for meteorites!

just who is " they "
should we simply ignore the obvious military and political considerations ?
given that america insists only they may use space for military purposes
just look at their response over chinas bringing down of its satalite

what would china or russia , or even india think of america building a weapon delivery device like that into space ?


i doubt it will happen

Not much energy would be required to move a meteorite out of the way. I'm not talking about gigantic ones that would destroy the earth, I'm sorry not all meteors are that size.



JAXA has plans and it's almost guarenteed all other major space agencys have designs or plans for them (NASA, ESA, RKA, CNSA)

And what millitary and political considerations? This isn't the cold war, no country is going to build a space elevator to dominate other countries military wise. And if a space elevator is built, it definitely won't be by one country, it'll be a joint project by many space agencys just like the ISS. It's simply pessimistic to claim it won't happen, one will definitely be started during the 21st century, it's only a matter of when.

This post was edited by Caedus on Oct 22 2011 11:24am