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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 523
EAN num: 9780974651712
ISBN number: 0974651710
Label: BC Edwards
Manufacturer: BC Edwards
Page Count: 288
Printing Date: 2003-11
Publishing house: BC Edwards
Sale Popularity Level: 720835
Studio: BC Edwards
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Brief Book Summary:
The authors take the reader through the history of the concept, technical design and economic practicalities of building an elevator to space, and, ultimately, the implications of what such a low cost transportation system would mean to society. Based on three years of NASA-funded studies and written for the technically literate layperson, Edwards and Westling discuss the recent technological advances that now make the space elevator feasible. They conclude by addressing the effects that the space elevator could have on mankind's future from communications and energy to colonizing space.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Although it came out six years ago, Brad Edwards' book is still second to none. If you want to learn a lot about what a space elevator is, how it might be designed and built and what it will be used for, this book will give you all the details.
Rated by buyers 
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This engineer's quite positive reaction to this technically impressive book is overshadowed by his own obsession with the mundane topics of spelling and punctuation. That's much more my own problem than it is the author's. But for any of my fellow obsessives out there who consider taking on this book, I must warn you, there's hardly a page where you won't find yourself grinding your teeth over the lack of respect for the standards of our language. Unfortunately for us apostrophe freaks, that can lead to an irrational lack of confidence in the logic and mathematics of the content.
Otherwise, this is a very interesting and complete presentation of an important approach to escaping our planet.
Rated by buyers -
Now we have seen the failure of the shuttle it is time we had a look at some alternatives. What we have here is a first-class study of a `Space Elevator'. If such an elevator could be built it would revolutionize space travel.
Written in easy style and does not need much technical skill to read. The writers here have done a good job here.
If the figures quoted are correct such a scheme would be about 6 to 10 billion dollars. In today's world this is not that much money. Overall it sounds too good to be true. I am sure that we could add a few more zeros as everything in space is more expensive then quoted. Still it does show the project might be possible and affordable if it can work something I am not qualified to say that it does depend on materials that we don't have yet.
I think the writers have proven their point that it is within reach of current technology and we should do a more detailed study on this topic.
Rated by buyers -
Brad Edwards' book serves as 'the manifesto' for those interested in radical thinking for space access. It is a delightful read on the challenges and effort to make a space elevator a reality. The spin-off technologies will be wonderfully useful in the years ahead. I am pleased to see that NASA's Centennial Challenge named SpaceFoward and the space elevator competition its very first challenge. Nonetheless, the very first competition made little progress. Yet I suspect that the second year efforts will make for better competition to 'beat the house.' Go Virginia Tech Space Elevator Team!
Rated by buyers 
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The authors managed to convince me in a very short time that Edwards' plan of a Space Elevator could indeed be feasible in a very short time from now (given only a few technological breakthroughs yet to be achieved).
The layout of the book is utterly sophomoric, even more of a surprise as Edwards apparently had a professional writer at hand to co-author the book. These guys have obviously never heard anything about LaTeX or other quality type setting systems that are, mind you, standard in the maths/engineering scientific community. The readibility of the formulae suffers most, and the presentation of the tables and figures is a disgrace as well.
Some readers might find the prose is lacking in style, although I quite liked the colloquial approach (I must say that I'm not a native speaker of English, so if I was I might be annoyed as well). The structure of the chapters would profit from quite some refactoring, too.
Still the sheer amount of information provided is impressive and the authors do a great job in convincing even the most sceptical of the feasibility of this project by tackling most, if not all, of the problems at hand with great skill.
I strongly recommend this book to anybody with an interest in space-faring, science fiction or just great technological ideas that should rather be realized yesterday than tomorrow.
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