Can we build a staircase to the moon?

HOW HIGH CAN WE BUILD?

There is a famous story in Hindu mythology in which Ravana wanted to build a staircase to the heavens but kept procrastinating and was never able to even begin with the project. Fast forward to the 21st century and all this seems to be funny. But if not to the heavens, is it possible to build a staircase to the moon? In the modern world, staircases are replaced by elevators, and building a space elevator is what is a dream mission for humanity (I wonder who would like to take the stairs to the moon?). If not an elevator to the moon, at least we hope to reach the lower earth orbits.

Before even thinking to build something as big as the space elevator whose height is about Thirty-five thousand kilometers. which is about 40 thousand times the tallest building on earth, The Burj Khalifa, we should first try and find out the maximum height that we can build on earth, and what are the challenges that we face in doing so.

Historically, the tallest structure built was the pyramids of the Giza which held this title for around 4000 years. It was topped by the cathedral building in the 14th century. After some years there was a revolution in the maximum height of artificial structures with the introduction of the Eiffel Tower which stood at a staggering height of 330 meters which is about 2.4 times the pyramid of Giza. After this there was no looking back, we kept growing more and more vertically. Another revolution was with the building of TV and Radio towers, the highest of them being about 650 meters in height. As of now, Burj Khalifa is the highest structure ever built by humans at an astounding height of 828 meters. But the question is "Can we go higher"? Famous structural engineer, Willam Baker stated that we could even go higher than Mount Everest. But is that it, Before knowing that let's look at some possible challenges.

The first and foremost challenge is that if we make the height very big then the pressure exerted on the foundation by the weight of the building will be very high. Eventually, the building will either sink or collapse. But this problem can be easily tackled if we make the base very wide and keep thinning it out as we move up. Due to this, the weight of the building is well distributed and the pressure on the foundation is reduced (Pressure is inversely proportional to the area of contact). Using this principle, buildings such as X-seed 4000 are planned to be brought up in the future. It is estimated to have a height of about 4 Km and to compensate, the base is made of a diameter of around 6-7 Km.

Now that this problem is technically dealt with, what are the other challenges that we face as we build up? Considering a building that has human inhabitants, extreme heights can lead to physical health issues. Other than that, transportation and obviously the economic limitations are major issues. But what if we don't want to live in the building itself but only use it for transportation, just like the space elevator we mentioned above. This brings back the question again "Is it possible to build a space elevator?"

Before looking for the answer, you have the right to ask me why should we even bother to build high. Is it just to satisfy your childhood fantasies or to give a hard time to your acrophobic (fear of heights) friend. Well scientifically in space research and technology, the space elevator has a huge role to play. If we manage to build a space elevator, then the cost of transportation of objects to space will reduce by about 95 to 99 percent. We can easily deploy satellites, space stations, and even the dream to build a lunar city won't be very far.

Now then you all might be thinking as to why this kid is beating around the bush and not coming to the point. For all those let us now discuss the challenges and disadvantages of building a space elevator.

First of all, they are very expensive, the estimated expense is as high as 60 billion dollars which is close to the entire GDP of New Zealand. Keeping the cost factor aside, let us now discuss why it is physically impossible to build a space elevator with our current technology. The top of the buildings will be at extremely high speed, resulting in high centrifugal force. Thus the tension that is required to withhold the structure together is required to be very high to balance the centripetal force. As of now the strongest material we have on hold are the carbon nanotubes, but even they will not be able to upstand these extreme conditions. They are also prone to be either struck by lightning as they are good conductors or objects such as meteors flying around. It will also be experiencing extreme thermal conditions. Such a material that can tick all the boxes is not yet made, but we hope that the future has a different say.

Moreover, the elevator being higher than the orbits of satellites and the International space station, needs to be navigated properly, preferably in a boat, in the ocean to avoid a collision. Considering the previous broadening of the base factor, a boat won't work. We might as well need Blackbeard's fleet to carry it for us. Also, the influence of other celestial bodies is also required to be taken into consideration. Anyways, just like the build limit has been increased in Minecraft lately, I hope our own potential build height keeps on increasing. Maybe then we can imagine a moon colony for ourselves. To the moon everyone. By the way, I don't know about Ravana but I'm pretty sure that we as a community will manage to pull this off in the future.

I Started with staircases but wrote everything about the elevators, please don't bash me for that. Well, everything will be the same, or will it? Please write down below what the additional challenges to building a stair to the moon would be.