Beanstalks

[DiamondB]

I'm getting ready to start my d20 Future campaign and realized that in all the source material I have (which I admit is sparse) there is no mention of Beanstalks, y'know elevators from a planetary surface to an orbital station. So any thoughts on what PL the technology for functional Beanstalks would be?

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Orbital Elevators are right in there soon after our level of tech, so I'd say they'd be PL6. After that, I'd assume most ships have methods for getting in and out of gravity easily without wasting large amounts of fuel.

--fje

 

[The Edge]

Id never considerd them, to me they sound like a rather imposible structure but I don't know quite how you imagine them to be. Other than on low grav worlds they just seem too heavy, plus working like a giant lever, it would only take the slightest nudge to tople them, uless their foundations covered an imense area. But then im talking about realism in a future game, so don't worry too much about what I say.

In my game also getting ready to launch, small shutle craft are used to ferry between space and the surface, or on the largest scale 'entry frigates' (half size, less armoured frigates with specialized engines) are used when larger bulks need to be moved. Fuel is generaly not too much of a problem (at least for this case) in my game, and the craft have a level of control sufficent to avoid to any major re-entry hazards, it might be in yours so this all depends.

If I was to use bean stalks I'd say PL7, then the grav age do-dads can lend a hand, avoiding the extreme pressure put on the surface. Although I don't actually stick too tightly to the prog levels.

 

[Laslo Tremaine]

I too would say that a space elevator could be put up in the next tech level after our current tech level.

And, The Edge, you should check out the current thinking on the subject. It's not as fantastic as you might think...

http://liftport.com/research2.php

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

There's a reference to a beanstalk in StarDrive. I wish I could remember which star system it was in - I think Tendril, but don't quote me on that.

StarDrive is PL 7, but I didn't see anything that suggested to me you needed PL 6 tech to use it. However, Alternity and D20 Future assume you won't have interstellar travel until PL 7, so any beanstalks would likely be built within the solar system. PL7 spaceflight is so efficient compared to the chemical propellants we use today that one wonders how useful a beanstalk would be in PL 7 - unless you make the ships less efficient or nearly incapable of landing in your campaign.

Beanstalks are so long they take up a lot of resources to build. Right now, in PL 5, we're just not efficient enough to build one.

 

[Plane Sailing]

If you can get hold of it, the old GDW adventure 'Beanstalk' for 2300AD could prove very useful to you. You'll probably be able to find it second hand if you dig around a little. There is a little info about it here http://home.earthlink.net/~ad2300/products.htm#BS

Although Wikipedia is not notoriously reliable, you might like to read the entry there as a jumping off point http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator

(nb the edge, the space elevator is considered hard science rather than space fantasy, and possibly the missing piece of the jigsaw for you is that they are not built up into space like a tower of babel, rather they come down from an object in sychronous orbit, so they are like a 'tether')

 

[Falkus]

Beanstalks are so long they take up a lot of resources to build. Right now, in PL 5, we're just not efficient enough to build one.

Actually, thanks to recent breakthroughts in the manufacturing of carbon nanotubes, we're probably less than a decade away from space elevator construction actually being viable.

Other than on low grav worlds they just seem too heavy

Don't think of them as a skyscraper, think of them as basically a string attached to something in orbit.

 

[GuardianLurker]

Actually, thanks to recent breakthroughts in the manufacturing of carbon nanotubes, we're probably less than a decade away from space elevator construction actually being viable.

IMO, that's the same decade that the "until we have commercial fusion power" is. I wouldn't hold your breath; current technology is *still* figuring out how to weave long enough "ropes", irrespective of the need load-bearing capability. Plus there are a lot of other ancillary issues that need to be solved.

But yeah, mid-to-late PL 6 is probably right, given the breadth of time the PLs seem to cover.

 

[dcollins]

Supposedly Liftport, Inc. has already opened a factory in New Jersey to produce the carbon nanotubes for use in a space elevator. From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in April:

LiftPort Inc. of Bremerton said it will open a plant in New Jersey this summer to produce the building blocks for a 62,000-mile-long elevator cable into outer space.

The privately held company said a newly created division, called LiftPort Nanotech Inc., in June will begin operating a 3,000-square-foot plant in Millville, N.J., to produce carbon nanotubes.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/221576_liftport26.html

 

[Jack of Shadows]

Hey,

Another great source that no one has mentioned is the Ex Machina RPG from Guardians of Order. It has an entire campaign setting based around a Beanstalk. Great information and read, I highly recommend it.

Jack