Would be cool, but as far as I understand, even long, continuous carbon nanotube... | Hacker News

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		mcv on April 20, 2023 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Space Elevator Would be cool, but as far as I understand, even long, continuous carbon nanotubes wouldn't be strong enough to carry their own weight.

Sharlin on April 20, 2023 [–]

Not if the cable has constant cross-sectional area, but actual designs call for a cable with an exponential taper, and that would make a carbon nanotube cable feasible. With currently available engineering materials the taper ratio would be too large (~10^8 for Kevlar, ~10^33 for steel…)

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