Join the National Marrow Donation Program: http://join.marrow.org/practical

Trying sometime a little different this time - animation. Thanks to my friend, James, for the idea. Diving into the "meat and potatoes" of engineering this literal stairway to the heavens: the Space Elevator. Hope you enjoy it! Don't forget to watch Kurzgesagt's excellent video on the Space Elevator here:    • Space Elevator – Science Fiction or t...   (Sorry for the jab guys!)

They say the devil’s in the details, but that’s not really true for the space elevator. The biggest hang ups in this concept are the most fundamental aspects of its design: the mass of the counterweight, getting power to the climber, the strength of the tether. If it ever does happen, it will be creative and passionate engineers leading the way.

Thanks for watching and let me know what you think!

Watch this video and the entire Practical Engineering catalog ad-free on Nebula: https://go.nebula.tv/practical-engine...

Website: http://practical.engineering
Patreon:   / practicalengineering  
Music: RSF - Backfire (   • RSF - Backfire ♫progressive house  )

Sources:
http://www.niac.usra.edu/files/studie...
http://www.spaceward.org/documents/pa...
http://www.spaceward.org/documents/pa...
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d402...

Errata:
-The Clarke Belt is misspelled.
-At 1:40 the earth is spinning in the wrong direction.
-Kurzgesagt is misspelled.