From: vince@offshore.ai (Vincent Cate)
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy
Subject: CNT Rope Binding (was Re: More Space Elevator news
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Ian Stirling <root@mauve.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:<q4zEc.974$Fc7.225381@stones.force9.net>...
> Ropes of carbon nanotubes, where the individual length is hundreds of 
> nanometers, and the rope several um long, only glued together by 
> van-der-valls forces have already obtained 50GPa.
> 
> http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~lericson/lericson%20masters%20thesis.pdf

This is very interesting.  It seem a bit funny to call it a "rope" 
when you need a scanning electron microscope to see it. :-)

Why is this possible on a microscopic scale while nobody seems to
be able to get a rope near this GPa on a macroscopic scale?  I guess  
binding using van-der-valls forces not scale up well?  Why?
It seems like you could make a bunch of these as long as you want 
and then spin the strands together.

  -- Vince