gribbon Posted January 4, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2007 "Note that as of 2006, carbon nanotubes have an approximate price of $25/gram, and 20,000 kg - twenty million times that much - would be necessary to form even a seed elevator. This price is decreasing rapidly, and large-scale production would reduce it further, but the price of suitable carbon nanotube cable is anyone's guess at this time." Space elevator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "While theoretically carbon nanotubes can have tensile strengths beyond 120 GPa, in practice the highest tensile strength ever observed in a single-walled tube is 52 GPa, and such tubes averaged breaking between 30 and 50 GPa….the strongest steel resists no more than 5.5 Gpa…” Hmmm…. A space elevator would need 65-120 Gpa….and so far 52 has been achieved…not too far away though… However there is another part of Wikipedia which claims the strongest steel has an Ultimate strength of just Mpa 1860 and a density of 7.8g/cm cubed, whereas Carbon nanotubes have a strength of MPa 62000, and a density of1.34 (cm cubed)... 238.47 MPa/cm cubed for steel 46268.66 MPa/cm cubed for nanotubes.....so that's 194 times the strength to weight ratio....quite a difference...:evil: :dogwalk: I'm not sure about the cost-to-strength ratio, but perhaps someone with a bit of expertise in the steel industry knows how the prices vary... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akahenaton Posted August 12, 2007 Report Share Posted August 12, 2007 I could suggest several, but none of them would be the "best" in any single category. What you are looking for is "unobtainium". :DBut my nomination for the best all-round "toughest" material would be Titanium.I like the "unobtanium" idea hahahahahaha!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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