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bill
Unfettered
Joined: 25 Sep 2002 Posts: 614 Location: Tampa
[OC][OOG/META] Orbital Colony Wouldn't this be a spiffy rabbit hole for the little ARG that could!
http://www.liftport.com/
Ah well, we can dream, right?
** retagged and moved to new section -- jamesi
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Bill
http://deaddrop.us/
Dedicated to Alternate Reality Gaming
Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2004 11:44 pm
konamouse
Official uF Dietitian
Joined: 02 Dec 2002 Posts: 8010 Location: My own alternate reality
Re: Orbital Colony
bill wrote:
Wouldn't this be a spiffy rabbit hole for the little ARG that could!
http://www.liftport.com/
Ah well, we can dream, right?
Uhm, I thought it is the rabbit hole.
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Posted: Wed Sep 22, 2004 12:05 am
spaceboy
Unfettered
Joined: 06 Aug 2004 Posts: 475 Location: Cambridge Mental Hospital
Sure looks like it to me. Could OC finally be starting?
Oh, btw I signed up for the newsletter thing. I'm anxious to see what comes.
edit: Wait a sec. Just found this on the Orbital Colony site: "In the meantime, you can find some background reading on some of the ideas we will be exploring at Liftport.com and isr.us."
_________________Watching white moon face
The stars never feel anger
Blah, blah, blah, the end.
Posted: Wed Sep 22, 2004 8:42 am
OU812
Guest
Hmmmm? lifeport.com whois stuff
Quote:
Name Server: NS.4CS.NET
Name Server: NS1.4CS.NET
Status: ACTIVE
Updated Date: 21-jan-2003
Creation Date: 12-sep-1996
Expiration Date: 11-sep-2006
Seems the domain has been around too long to be part of Orbital Colony development, unless someone had it just for fun????
Or maybe they pruchased it ????
Is this already posted somewhere in the OC Section?
OU812
Posted: Wed Sep 22, 2004 12:40 pm
Caterpillar
Unfictologist
Joined: 25 Sep 2002 Posts: 1887 Location: cem's otherbody
LiftPort is "real"
See here
Here
And here
Guess this is sort of similar to Elevator:2010 as well..........who woulda thunk?
Posted: Wed Sep 22, 2004 1:01 pm
bill
Unfettered
Joined: 25 Sep 2002 Posts: 614 Location: Tampa
More coolness.
http://www.virgingalactic.com/
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Bill
http://deaddrop.us/
Dedicated to Alternate Reality Gaming
Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2004 8:51 am
Fi
Unfettered
Joined: 13 Apr 2004 Posts: 444 Location: London
For your information, and more importantly, amusement, I thought I'd post this. I looked at the LiftPort page and was somewhat suspicious, so posted a (in retrospect somewhat purile) comment in their contact form:
Quote:
This is the most ridiculous thing I ever did hear. In the words of McEnroe, "you cannot be serious!"... Can you?!
Fi
This was a few days ago now, but today I received the following reply:
Quote:
Hi,
Thank you for contacting us. Of course we're serious! A few more years
developing carbon nano-tubes, and we'll build it. Actually, graphite
fibers are theoretically strong enough to build a Space Elevator, the
primary drawback there is it would require ~55,000 tons or so. Carbon
nano-tubes are considerably stronger, once we get mass production and
fabrication dealt with (a few years, give-or-take), we'll be on our
way. Ask the question, and I'll answer it.
};
Matthew Speten
LiftPort Group
Public Relations Specialist
245 4th St. Ste. 508
Bremerton, WA. 98337
360-377-0623
Sign up for our monthly newsletter at: www.liftport.com/lists.php
Check out the LiftPort discussion boards at: www.liftport.com/forums/
Well I'm still highly suspicious, but hey - they did reply with incredibly good grace!
Fi
_________________simono: Master Chief needs free energy too you know.
Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 4:16 am
Flidget Jerome
Unfettered
Joined: 26 Aug 2004 Posts: 308
Fi wrote:
Well I'm still highly suspicious, but hey - they did reply with incredibly good grace!
The first time I heard about something this, it was from a friend linking me to an CNN article about a similar NASA scheme .
. . . Mostly I just feel sorry for the poor bastards that are going to get assigned to maintaining the thing. Murphy's Law dictates it's going to get stuck in the middle with people in it, just like any other elevator.
Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 4:33 am
Last edited by Flidget Jerome on Wed Sep 29, 2004 8:53 am; edited 2 times in total
Adrian
Boot
Joined: 26 Sep 2002 Posts: 69 Location: Oxford/London, UK
I'm really impressed with their answer to Fi's email. The idea of a space elevator is not a new one and with carbon nanotubes, as he says, we finally have the materials to construct such a thing. Unfortunately Liftport has an uphill battle against the (understandable) incredulity of the public to the idea, so they need to keep good PR at all times.
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Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 6:03 am
Skychrono
Kilroy
Joined: 28 Sep 2004 Posts: 2
Uh, heh, just to confirm... this isn't ARG related, right, but an actual technology?
If so, pretty cool.
Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 6:52 am
Fi
Unfettered
Joined: 13 Apr 2004 Posts: 444 Location: London
It does seem to be real. There are some fairly interesting discussions going on their forums if you fancy looking into it further. Although I came across this question, which was spectacularly stupid:
Quote:
I am wondering why you need Carbon Nanotubes? Whats wrong with steel cable like traditional construction?
Personally I would never like to see a lift to space built on this planet ever, ever, EVAR, but the technology is certainly very cool.
Fi
_________________simono: Master Chief needs free energy too you know.
Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 9:51 am
tanner
Entrenched
Joined: 21 May 2003 Posts: 875 Location: (x,y,z,t,i, ...)+
Quote:
Personally I would never like to see a lift to space built on this planet ever, ever,
why would you never like it?????? it is a wonderful idea and been around since arthur c clark -- they just been waiting for right materials.
Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2004 2:52 pm
david_hayter
Boot
Joined: 02 Apr 2004 Posts: 45
You cannot access some parts of their site now(oe.com, that is).
Maybe they are updating. Maybe it is....starting........
By the way, I finished reading 2001 yesterday. Great book.
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Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 3:13 am
mst3k_freak
Boot
Joined: 29 Jul 2004 Posts: 28
I've heard dead serious radio interviews about Space Elevator technology. It sounds pretty cool, but I certainly won't be the first one to ride it. The ideas are real, so if there was a Space Elevator company website, I guess it would look like that.
Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2004 4:27 pm
Blacklight
Boot
Joined: 24 Aug 2004 Posts: 48 Location: Farmington, Connecticut
I can confirm that Liftport is a real company. I've read many articles about them and a friend of mine was trying to get the CEO to speak at his college about the technology of the space elevator.
Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:07 am
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