{"id":919,"date":"2003-02-06T16:39:32","date_gmt":"2003-02-07T08:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2003\/02\/07\/first-floor-mens-wear-ladies-undergarments-and-zero-g-toilets\/"},"modified":"2019-12-04T14:14:45","modified_gmt":"2019-12-04T22:14:45","slug":"first-floor-mens-wear-ladies-undergarments-and-zero-g-toilets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2003\/02\/06\/first-floor-mens-wear-ladies-undergarments-and-zero-g-toilets\/","title":{"rendered":"First floor: mens wear, ladies undergarments, and zero-g toilets"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:15336,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.space.com\\\/businesstechnology\\\/technology\\\/space_elevator_020327-1.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20101104104658\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.space.com:80\\\/businesstechnology\\\/technology\\\/space_elevator_020327-1.html&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-13 17:16:31&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-19 15:45:42&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-23 06:06:18&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-27 06:55:06&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-27 06:55:06&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:15337,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/doc.weblogs.com\\\/2003\\\/01\\\/06#columbiaGemOfTheSky&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20070609122203\\\/http:\\\/\\\/doc.weblogs.com:80\\\/2003\\\/01\\\/06&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-13 17:16:32&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-23 06:06:19&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-23 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17:16:33&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:15339,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.corante.com\\\/mooreslore\\\/20030201.shtml#20140&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20050404031854\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.corante.com:80\\\/mooreslore\\\/20030201.shtml&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-13 17:16:34&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-13 17:16:34&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:15340,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.corante.com\\\/mooreslore\\\/20030201.shtml#20306&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20050404031854\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.corante.com:80\\\/mooreslore\\\/20030201.shtml&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-13 17:16:35&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-13 17:16:35&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:15341,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.corante.com\\\/mooreslore\\\/20030201.shtml#20307&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20050404031854\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.corante.com:80\\\/mooreslore\\\/20030201.shtml&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-13 17:16:36&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-13 17:16:36&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:15342,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.corante.com\\\/mooreslore\\\/20030201.shtml#20319&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20050404031854\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.corante.com:80\\\/mooreslore\\\/20030201.shtml&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-13 17:16:36&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-13 17:16:36&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:15343,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.sgtstryker.com\\\/weblog\\\/archives\\\/week_2003_02_02.html#002397&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:15344,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.highliftsystems.com&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;new&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>I mentioned this briefly <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/03\/going_upway_up.html\" title=\"Going up...way up\">last March<\/a>, but with the Columbia disaster, the idea of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.space.com\/businesstechnology\/technology\/space_elevator_020327-1.html\" title=\"Space.com: The space elevator comes closer to reality\">space elevators<\/a> is starting to float around the &#8216;net again.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  Forget the roar of rocketry and those bone jarring liftoffs, the elevator would be a smooth 62,000-mile (100,000-kilometer) ride up a long cable. Payloads can shimmy up the Earth-to-space cable, experiencing no large launch forces, slowly climbing from one atmosphere to a vacuum.<\/p>\n<p>  For a space elevator to function, a cable with one end attached to the Earth&#8217;s surface stretches upwards, reaching beyond geosynchronous orbit, at 21,700 miles (35,000-kilometer altitude). After that, simple physics takes charge.<\/p>\n<p>  The competing forces of gravity at the lower end and outward centripetal acceleration at the farther end keep the cable under tension. The cable remains stationary over a single position on Earth. This cable, once in position, can be scaled from Earth by mechanical means, right into Earth orbit. An object released at the cable&#8217;s far end would have sufficient energy to escape from the gravity tug of our home planet and travel to neighboring the moon or to more distant interplanetary targets.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Fascinating stuff to envision, and according to that article, it could conceivably be a reality in ten to fifteen years.<\/p>\n<p>Part of the fun for me, though, was just tracking the thread across the web. I picked up on this from <a href=\"http:\/\/doc.weblogs.com\/2003\/01\/06#columbiaGemOfTheSky\" title=\"Columbia gem of the sky\">Doc Searls<\/a> pointing to Dana Blankenhorn&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.corante.com\/mooreslore\/20030201.shtml#20139\" title=\"Moore's Lore: Solution: A Space Elevator\">series<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.corante.com\/mooreslore\/20030201.shtml#20140\" title=\"Moore's Lore: What's stopping the space elevator?\">of<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.corante.com\/mooreslore\/20030201.shtml#20306\" title=\"Moore's Lore: More on the Space Elevator\">five<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.corante.com\/mooreslore\/20030201.shtml#20307\" title=\"Moore's Lore: The space elevator is not a pipe dream\">blog<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.corante.com\/mooreslore\/20030201.shtml#20319\" title=\"Moore's Lore: Space elevator: A teachable moment\">posts<\/a> about the idea. Dana&#8217;s posts led me to John Stryker <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sgtstryker.com\/weblog\/archives\/week_2003_02_02.html#002397\" title=\"Sg. Stryker: Going up\">pointing out some possible problems<\/a>. The ensuing conversation in the comments to John&#8217;s post included some encouraging words from Michael Laine, the president of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.highliftsystems.com\/\" title=\"HighLift Systems\">HighLift Systems<\/a>, a company actively working on attempting to collect the necessary technology and funding to put this project into reality.<\/p>\n<p>While this will probably come as no great surprise to those who know me, I&#8217;m solidly in the camp of people who would love to see this vision become a reality. If I had the pocket change, I&#8217;d write the check myself &#8212; unfortunately that&#8217;s a wee bit out of my range at the moment. Still, though, I&#8217;ll keep hoping.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forget the roar of rocketry and those bone jarring liftoffs, the elevator would be a smooth 62,000-mile (100,000-kilometer) ride up a long cable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2028],"tags":[514],"class_list":["post-919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}