Space Exploration Timetable?

space elevators, strange just had this same argument with a mate! from just typing it into google every link seems to say 15 years , bar one which said under 50!

The most popular and financed idea is here:
http://www.isr.us/SEHome.asp
If myou are a doubter then just download the video animation here and read the info'! sounds wacky but there you go. Maybe a good time to quote the movie "contact
wasnt is crazy that people said the earth was flat or that people could fly in the sky like birds"
Rob

Flat? you mean round.

Btw what is GEO orbit??

geostationary,
http://celestrak.com/columns/v04n07/

and i meant flat!

Why does geo orbit have to far away from the earth?

62 miles is space for a start and it has to be high enough to be in orbit

Put simply, geostationary orbit is the height required to fall towards earth but stay at the same height (definition of orbit) while simultaneously doing this above one point on the earth's surface. By physics, this height is relatively quite high compared to other orbits that don't follow a single point, or it is further out if you want to look at it that way. This must be on the equatorial plane or near it as well.

Annoyingly the official abbreviation of geostationary orbit is GSO but to me this also suggests geosynchronous orbit, oh well!

Robiwan said "62 miles is space for a start and it has to be high enough to be in orbit"


Lars said---"A space elevater needs to have its center of mass roughtly at geostationary orbit altidude - 36000km(!!!)"

<---that is alot higher than 62 miles


Nova said "Annoyingly the official abbreviation of geostationary orbit is GSO but to me this also suggests geosynchronous orbit, oh well!"

What is the difference between a geosynchronous orbit and a geostationary orbit?

I think Robiwan was just putting it very simply.

Sorry for confusing the issue with what I said, maybe this could clear it up, this is a good site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke_orbit

Hope that clears things up a little!

So a geostationary orbit is like a geosynchronous orbit only more so?

Are these types of orbits accomplished at the same altitude?

And yes I saw that geostationary orbits have to be above the equator.

Do Geosynchronous orbits have to be above the equator-no right?

Which type of orbit is used for the Global Positioning System? (GPS)

Thanks for the link btw.

We could have a private moonbase in <10 years, maybe even 5...

All we have to do is get Burt Rutan to get Paul Allen to give Bill Gates a call.

(And I'm dead serious.)

Once in orbit, getting to the moon is pretty easy-right?

Yep... LEO is halfway to anywhere, as they say.

And with half-a-billion dollars (which is 1/180th of the fortune of the world's richest man), you could easily haul up a pre-fab moonbase, and the vehicles and fuel to get it there with, say, a Sea Dragon. Hell, with a Sea Dragon, you could have the material in orbit for a space station too... just recycle the skin, structure and fuel tanks.

Hmmm... if anyone uses that idea, I want royalties! It's a good one.

Sea Dragon?