You know what ED is missing? Space elevators.
- Thread starter Skuli
- Start date
What's the point of space elevators in the Elite universe? We have engines that can do 20 G's while running on fuel cheaper than water.
Space elevators would require enormous investments to build and are kind of pointless with the tech in Elite.
Now, for stations in closer orbit, I would like that...
Space elevators would require enormous investments to build and are kind of pointless with the tech in Elite.
Now, for stations in closer orbit, I would like that...
Satellites and personal ships that are zooming just above the atmosphere of inhabited planets, those should be likely.
A Dyson Sphere would be still beyond the technology presented in ED. You have to encapsulate and regulate a sun/solar body. Tough to render, not much gameplay value. Still, if they made one, I'd schlep across a couple sectors to go see it. I found my house on Earth, so why not check out a Dyson Sphere?
Might not be as viable from a pilot's perspective, but I would imagine there are a lot of citizens that don't own their own ship. Could be used as a terminal to off world. Likewise could be a conduit for mineral extraction, reducing the time/cost of getting it off world.
But besides the possible reasons, I think it would just be cool to see in game lol
Not in low orbit or lower. We'll see how planetary landings play out but they'll have to re-write normal space flight mechanics a bit because ~300m/s is well below escape velocity for earth and the FSD should be mass-locked at sea level.
There's definitely room in ED currently for space elevators to do the planet to orbit heavy lifting.
We also need them in the here and now - sod the ing about with chemical rockets that SpaceX and Virgin are doing, get working on an elevator - we're already on the fringes of it being possible. Chemical rockets from planet to orbit will never be more than the play things of the rich.
Except for it requiring materials science several orders of magnitude more advanced than the best we can do now.
I had in mind one that's found as a Relic, actually - I agree, the tech is beyond ED's human civilization.
I'm not aware of anything fundamental that says we can't do it. Optimistic assessments put it as close as 2035. If we really wanted to do it and invested as much in getting there as is currently being invested in low orbit joyrides for the super rich then people reading this forum could live to see it happen.
At CONSTANT thrust you can achieve escape velocity at 1m/s. Will take a very long time though.
For planetary landings, either they lower the minimum SC velocity to 8.2 km/s (Space Shuttle re-entry speed) or hand-wavium facts that ED ships have stronger shielding. 30 km/s is the average speed of an asteroid/metorite and they break up on entry.
For planetary takeoffs, 300 m/s is way too slow, would take approx 24 minutes to just get to ISS orbit distance of 431 km. So FSD will have to be re-jigged for takeoff.
Space elevators go upto approx 36000 km, geostationary orbit distance. That would take approx 33 hrs and 20 mins at 300 m/s.
Still would like to see a few space elevators though. They would have their purpose as cheap hotels for those who can't afford to get to space stations. Also as a simple way of getting cargo down to the planet without the need of a ship.
True, it really is just an engineering problem when you get right down to it, but last I heard there weren't any reliable processes for manufacturing carbon nanotube based materials on the kind of scale we'd need.
It's not all doom and gloom though, Elon Musk is putting a lot of money into research on launch loops.
Hell yes... this would provide some nice visual experiences and a pretty background. They all seem so far removed from the spheres at this moment.
F.e. small stations/satelites/defense systems could be added and new mission possibilities like repair/maintenance stuff. More diversity in general concerning stations
utposts is badly needed.The suggestion of the OP looks very cool though...
Last edited: