Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Japanese Space-Elevator Experiment Launching to Space Station Next Week (Really!)
Space.com ^ | Sept 7, 2018 | Scott Snowden, Space.com Contributor

Posted on 09/10/2018 11:11:18 AM PDT by ETL

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-58 next last
To: laplata
Space lightning? I’d never heard of it.

Birkeland Currents

21 posted on 09/10/2018 11:48:16 AM PDT by Windflier (Pitchforks and torches ripen on the vine. Left too long, they become black rifles.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: ETL

Asteroid needed first. We are 200 years away from the space elevator people.


22 posted on 09/10/2018 11:48:25 AM PDT by freedomjusticeruleoflaw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ETL

23 posted on 09/10/2018 11:48:47 AM PDT by relictele
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Afterguard

I didn’t say it would work!! Lol!


24 posted on 09/10/2018 11:49:28 AM PDT by Afterguard (Deplorable me!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: ETL

Not making sense to me. How do cubsat cables that are only 33 feet long run 240,00 miles to the moon?


25 posted on 09/10/2018 11:54:36 AM PDT by be-baw (still seeking...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: relictele

Runs on snozzberries.


26 posted on 09/10/2018 11:55:29 AM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: be-baw

Brain fart on my part. How does a 10 m cable stretch to the ISS?


27 posted on 09/10/2018 11:56:36 AM PDT by be-baw (still seeking...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: be-baw

Up scale


28 posted on 09/10/2018 11:56:36 AM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: ETL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T02t_MBgYVU

Contest in Japan for cable cor for elevator. These have run fro several years. The Japanese are serious about a space elevator.

Hard part will be parking a sizable asteroid in earth orbit to anchor the top end of the elevator...


29 posted on 09/10/2018 11:59:58 AM PDT by ASOC (Having humility really means one is rarely humiliated)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ETL

This was being experimented with 20+ years ago

http://articles.latimes.com/1996-02-26/news/mn-40319_1_space-shuttle-columbia


30 posted on 09/10/2018 12:00:19 PM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: be-baw
Not making sense to me. How do cubsat cables that are only 33 feet long run 240,00 miles to the moon?

“In the experiment, two ultra-small cubic satellites, which were developed by Shizuoka University Faculty of Engineering, will be used.

Each satellite measures 10 centimeters each side, and a roughly 10-meter-long [30-33 feet-long] steel cable will be employed to connect the twin satellites.

The pair of satellites will be released from the International Space Station (ISS), and a container acting like an elevator car will be moved on a cable connecting the satellites using a motor. A camera attached to the satellites will record the movements of the container in space.

The small box that will be used as the miniature space elevator will only be six centimeters in length and three centimeters in both height and width. If the space elevator is able to achieve movement along the 10-meter cable that will be stretched between two cubic satellites, which cameras placed in these satellites will be able to track, there is a much greater possibility that it could succeed on a larger scale.”

https://www.inquisitr.com/5057135/japan-are-getting-ready-to-test-the-worlds-first-miniature-space-elevator/

31 posted on 09/10/2018 12:07:45 PM PDT by ETL (Obama-Hillary, REAL Russia collusion! Uranium-One Deal, Missile Defense, Iran Deal, Nukes: Click ETL)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: I want the USA back
A cable from the surface of the Earth to a satellite.

It does not necessarily need to go all the way down to the surface of the earth in order to be useful.

Lets say we have a platform, just above the atmosphere so we don't have to worry about air friction. The platform is connected to a satellite in a much higher orbit, and as a result it is traveling at a much lower speed than it would need to, in order to stay in orbit.

Being able to get a spacecraft to that platform without having to achieve full orbital velocity would save a lot of fuel.

32 posted on 09/10/2018 12:09:01 PM PDT by PapaBear3625 ("It rubs the rainbow on it's skin or it gets the diversity again!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: ASOC
Hard part will be parking a sizable asteroid in earth orbit to anchor the top end of the elevator...

I thought that was unnecessary due to the mass of the elevator itself.

For reference, picture an axle spinning with a chain attached to it. It should be able to enter a stable stretched state.

33 posted on 09/10/2018 12:10:06 PM PDT by Lazamataz (On future maps, I suggest we remove the word "California" and substitute "Open-Air Asylum".)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: ETL

In space, no one can hear you scream after listening to 12 hours of Muzak in the Space Elevator.


34 posted on 09/10/2018 12:11:45 PM PDT by Yo-Yo (Is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ETL

It will only work if the Cubesats are spinning around
the center point of the cable. It should be interesting
as the mass changes causing alternating sats to be the
center.


35 posted on 09/10/2018 12:11:52 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Yo-Yo

Lol!

How bout a “space yo-yo”??


36 posted on 09/10/2018 12:13:17 PM PDT by ETL (Obama-Hillary, REAL Russia collusion! Uranium-One Deal, Missile Defense, Iran Deal, Nukes: Click ETL)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: tet68

Wait, the sat with the elevator should be the center as
the sats start to revolve having more mass, which will
shift as the elevator moves beyond the center of the cable.
would be interesting to observe.


37 posted on 09/10/2018 12:15:18 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Windflier

Thanks.


38 posted on 09/10/2018 12:18:09 PM PDT by laplata (Leftists/Progressives have diseased minds.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: tet68
It will only work if the Cubesats are spinning around the center point of the cable. It should be interesting as the mass changes causing alternating sats to be the center.

Can't focus right now to understand this stuff. Busy doing other things. Will come back later or tomorrow.

39 posted on 09/10/2018 12:21:23 PM PDT by ETL (Obama-Hillary, REAL Russia collusion! Uranium-One Deal, Missile Defense, Iran Deal, Nukes: Click ETL)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: PapaBear3625

“Being able to get a spacecraft to that platform without having to achieve full orbital velocity would save a lot of fuel.”

You’d save much more fuel just lifting a rocket to the upper atmosphere with a dirigible and then launching it from there, where you could avoid 90% of the atmospheric resistance, since that is where the really big fuel cost comes from. Even better, dirigible technology is old news, so we can almost certainly build something like that without developing much new technology, we just need to work out the engineering.


40 posted on 09/10/2018 12:30:32 PM PDT by Boogieman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-58 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson