Canadians Vie for Space Elevator Victory

unc0nn3ct3d writes to mention a CBC article about some plucky Canadian teams planning to go for NASA's space elevator challenge. From the article: "Teams based in Saskatoon, Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto are among thousands of space enthusiasts expected to converge on a desert site in Las Cruces, N.M., on Friday and Saturday for the X-Prize Cup, a festival mounted by the X-Prize Foundation ... The competitors are gearing up for the Spaceward Foundation's Space Elevator Challenge, which requires them to surmount technical obstacles in the development of a new type of vehicle that would take people and cargo from Earth into space."

Re:Welll.....

[Anonymous Coward]

If you lived next to 300 million Americans, you'd want off this stupid rock too.

You could simply move farther north, away from the border.

Re:Welll.....

[Kjella]

Actually, that would be 100 million Americans, and 200 million illegal immigrants.

I didn't know there were so many native Americans left.

Re:Go Canada!

[b4stard]

Canada may be once of the nicer places to live, but the only thing this country's a leader in is taxation ...

Ever struck you that the high taxes (or rather what the taxes are spent on) and the high niceness of living could be correlated?

Re:Couldn't we build...

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't seem to appreciate the orders of magnitude involved.

Eventually they need a 100,000-kilometre tether. A tower 10 times Everest is 88 km up. 99,912 km to go.

Now, they might actually build a tower for some odd reason (say, to prevent wildlife from nesting on the tether) but the reason is NOT going to be to "get close".

Re:Go Canada!

[freezin fat guy]

For those of you who wonder why we (Canucks) are so self-congratulatory allow me to explain:

We are the only nation on earth who borders no one else but the most powerful country in the world. We live and die under the shadow of the United States. In fact many parts of the world view us as the little brother of the US. So like a little brother we are always looking for something that proves our importance. Even better if we find one or two things we can do better than big brother. (this article not a good example of such) We are always looking for acknowlegement.

Also like a little brother we aren't taken seriously, even on those occasions we might have something good to say. "Shut up and let the grown-ups talk, little guy..."

Personally I am a fan of honest criticism and not bowing to the greater powers when it's not appropriate. That part makes me proud to be Canadian. But I'm not a fan of merely insulting the greater powers. Isn't that a form of intolerance? But just so you know, when you're a little brother you mouth off quite a bit but deep down you can't change the fact you love your older brother. You just don't like to admit those things out loud.