SpaceElevator
Our Basic Premises
- One of the premises of the free software movement is that: proof of concept, running code, and presence of community are all that are necessary for success. A wiki cataloging a critical mass of models, spreadsheets, simulations, and documentation, in open formats, will attract people to help find and solve problems.
- No toys. Anything can be modeled in software so we will increasingly aim to simulate the real thing.
- Crawl, walk, run. We have big goals which is fine, and we will get there one step at a time. Any progress is good, however, we are too small to do waste, which is the "No toys" mantra above, and why we should reuse as much as possible -- standing on the shoulders of giants. The best way to make a wiki is not to start writing, but to gather existing things that belong in it!
Think big: what would we want from NASA and Intel?
Next Steps
Brad tells Vlada that the space elevator is the least controversial big idea in Keith's book and records her response. (Linux 50% marketshare in 5 years, robot-driven cars, etc.) She might think I'm a bad influence on you :-)
Book Revision work
CAD models
We need 3-D models in free formats usable by apps like this: http://sketchup.google.com/
(I suspect there is a free app to make models in that is better than sketchup, but with free formats, we don't care.)
We could build all the basic parts as a 3-D model, then get people improving on all of them in parallel. What really does a climber need to look like?
Here is a list of people who will build models for sketchup. http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/cldetails?mid=c9bd5e6d5b511d0e6c58fbbbefee0599
A few space elevator models: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?q=space+elevator&btnG=Search&styp=m&reps=1
This task is initially an archaeological expedition. Brad finds every 3-D he knows about and puts them up here. (I will go through the sketchup warehouse and create links to any that are cool.)
Particle simulations
Codebase_Analysis#Physics_Engines
Imagine you built a simulator so that when you added weight to the climber, the ribbon dimensions got bigger. I will figure out how to build that in a video game. If you create a spreadsheet which has the calculations, which boiled down to some simple formula, I could put that formula in. If someone improves the spreadsheet, they can put in a new formula.
