Posted on 09/25/2005 3:32:50 PM PDT by Grendel9
Space may still be the final frontier, but getting there could soon be almost as simple as stepping into the office lift at the start of the day.
The ‘space elevator’ Click to enlarge
The race is on to build the first "space elevator' - long dismissed as science fiction - to carry people and materials into orbit along a cable thousands of miles long.
In a significant step, American aviation regulators have just given permission for the opening trials of a prototype, while a competition to be launched next month follows in the wake of the $10 million (£5.6 million) "X Prize'', which led to the first privately developed craft leaving the Earth's atmosphere, briefly, last year.
Supporters of the elevator concept promise a future in space that is both cheap and accessible, and contrast it to Nasa's announcement last week that it will be relying on 40-year-old technology from the Apollo programme for its $105 billion plan to return to the Moon by 2018. The companies behind the space elevator say they will be able to lift material into orbit for as little as $400 a pound, compared with $20,000 a pound using existing rockets.
That would open up the possibility of tourists visiting a sky hotel in stationary orbit 22,000 miles above the Earth, with a view previously enjoyed only by astronauts.
It would also allow for far cheaper travel to the Moon and other planets within the solar system, since most of the energy required by rockets is used simply to escape Earth's gravity.
Russian scientists first envisaged a fixed link to space, and the idea was popularised by the British sci-fi writer and vision-ary, Arthur C Clarke, in his 1978 novel, The Fountains of Paradise.
The theory behind the space elevator is deceptively simple. With a base station on Earth and an orbiting satellite, solar-powered "climbers'', each carrying up to 20 tons, would crawl up a single cable into space over several days. The cable would be held up by the rotation of a 600-ton satellite counter-weight, much like a heavy object at the end of a spinning rope.
Until recently, the concept seemed doomed by the technology available, not least finding a material strong enough to make such a long cable, able to withstand extreme temperatures.
Scientists now believe that a material known as carbon nanotubes could be bound together to make a ribbon, rather than a cable, three-feet across but just half the width of a pencil.
Nanotubes, which are microscopic cylinders of carbon, are currently being developed by a number of companies, including GE and IBM. In one experiment, a sheet of nanotubes one-thousandth the thickness of a human hair could support 50,000 times its own mass.
"Elevator 2010'', which is to be launched on October 21 in California, will offer an annual first prize of $50,000 for the best design for both a tether - or ribbon - and a lightweight climber. It is being run by the Spaceward Foundation, which promotes space exploration, and has the backing of Nasa, which has given $400,000 in prize money. At least 10 teams will take part in the first contest.
Brad Edwards, a board member of the foundation, says the initial development could be ready "in the next couple of years", with the elevator itself being built in another decade.
"We are talking about getting this up in about 15 years,'' Dr Edwards predicted.
A rival design is being produced in Seattle by the LiftPort Group, which is counting down to a first voyage into space on April 12, 2018. The Federal Aviation Authority last week cleared an experiment by LiftPort that would use a mile-long tether attached to a balloon, something the company calls: "A critical step.''
Fears that an aircraft would crash into the elevator ribbon is just one concern. Space debris and terrorism are others.
Developers propose a floating base station near the equator, more than 400 miles from the nearest flight path.
Should the 800-ton ribbon break, it would either fly into space or fall back to the ground in fragments that would, in theory, hit no harder than a sheet of paper.
20 September 2005: US plans to be back on the moon by 2018 5 October 2004: Manned space flight No 2 clinches £5m prize
That's a fat pencil!
I'd hate to be in it during a power failure.
I'm not interested til they get a casino on the moon...Talk about a boring vacation...May as well just hang out in the back yard...At least there's some shade there...
Wait 'til a muslim flies into it... Mama Mia!
The unit only weighs 7 tons but can carry several people
and 13 tons of cargo for a trip of several days duration?
Not possible.
> That would open up the possibility of tourists ...
We can hardly imagine what it will open up.
Nuclear power for one. Radwaste (and severe hazmats
generally) would no longer be a problem - just run 'em
up the rope and let 'em loose when their arc takes them
right into the Sun.
Another - global warming - if it's real, we can put
huge thin sun shades in between the Earth and Sun, at
one of the Lagrangian points.
So this elevator "would crawl up a single cable into space over several days." How would people be able to not start up conversations for that long? Would they be allowed to make eye contact or would they have to look up at the ceiling? What if there's a pretty girl on the elevator? And would they pipe in Muzak? These are the things that would have to be worked out.
And would your ears pop?
You'd still need to give them a pretty substantial boost in order to reduce their solar orbital speed to the point where they'd fall into the sun. The earth moves in its orbit at 18 miles per second. You'd have to have a pretty long moment-arm above the surface to get it swinging that fast.
It makes me wonder.
That's too much "Girl from Ipanema" for me.
Kennedy as the operator and the Cindbag as the passenger.....then the virgin hunter can crash.
Didn't they try this before...in Babel?
I'd hate to be in it during a hurricane.
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