Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Super Towers?





The BBC makes the prediction that we will possibly build a building as tall as ten thousand meters or as tall as Mount Everest. My real problem with that idea is that assuming it is possible, just why would we actually do it? There are far too many problems and unwarranted risks involved.

However, it still led me to consider a serious variation. It would really be helpful to be able to accelerate mass into space. To do this I have proposed building a slanted launch tube inside a tall mountain and it could easily be taken to the that height in some locales like Everest. The tube would be evacuated before launch and the vehicle could leave the tube at the maximum mach possible for ten thousand meters.

Doing all that makes it reasonable to tie in the support tunnels and the like into horizontal access tunnels that reach the surface of the mountain. Then large structures could easily be built there providing living suites without over building the base itself at excessive cost. Certainly at the lower breathable levels, consumer demand should be excellent and ongoing.

It may not defray all the capital costs but it would certainly make all the necessary infrastructure sustainable.

The sonic boom itself would be on the other side of the mountain away from such structures.

Something like this could house tens of thousands.

1 comment:

  1. If you want to use a tube for launches, surely it would be less of a problem to set up a wind tunnel MagLev railgun rather than an enclosed/capped system which must nonetheless pass a projectile.

    ReplyDelete