Any ideas about just how large that coal-fired power plant has to be in megawatts?
“Once you’re in orbit, you’re halfway to anywhere.” – Robert A. Heinlein
Well, Motorola’s found a cheap way to make nanotubes. Of course, their interest is solely in TVs at this point, but I’m sure that the technology will start spreading rapidly. I can imagine that the carbon fiber panels in high performance sports cars will be replaced by such things soon enough.
I think ol’ Skyhook Row (its name in Tailgunner Jo) is one of those “wouldn’t it be neat if it could work without crashing horribly?” ideas. In its impracticality, sort of like building panzertanks out of spit & styrofoam, or total unilateral gun confiscation, or about anything a more optimistic nanotechnologist imagines.