Space Elevators Maybe Closer To Reality Than Imagined

Spacedaily ^ | 7/22/03 | Richard Perry

[techcor]

If they need $10 billion, they better start asking for funds somehow. There is no corporation outside of gov't that could come up with that kind of free capital, but maybe they could sell stock.

Actually, I think Iridium (with Bill Gates' help) had a start up capital of 9 billion. I still don't think it will fly but it seems interesting.

[RightWhale]

I still don't think it will fly

Neither do I. The space elevator has no real purpose; we will never need the space elevator, certainly not for the conquest of outer space. There is no mission for the space elevator. We need launch only a few carefully planned payloads to provide the seed for interplanetary development, and then we won't have to launch any great masses from earth for ever after. NASA could have done this by now, but the powers that be chose to waste years and careers for a political gesture of no technological importance. It is no exaggeration to say the ISS is an Orbiting White Elephant and a funding sink. It is exiguation to assert that our present rocket launch system is totally adequate for bootstrapping space development. We have excess launch capability.

[edwin hubble]

"don't these things by definition HAVE TO BE on the Equator?"
No.

Yes, they do, and I'd like to see your proof that they do not.

--Boris

---

Boris,

Here are some results of calculations by Blaise Gassend of MIT with graphs and analysis of several space elevator designs with non-equatorial anchor points.

http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/gassend/elevator/off-center-elevator.html

Note that Arthur Clarke came up with an anchor in Sri Lanka about 7 degrees from the equator.

[boris]

"Here are some results of calculations by Blaise Gassend of MIT with graphs and analysis of several space elevator designs with non-equatorial anchor points."

He presents no analysis; he merely makes assertions and presents plots. The plots--on the basis of the gnuplot statements--are laughably simplistic. This is not proof or even scientific reasoning.

I see M.I.T. has really become "stupified" since my days there.

--Boris

[Teacher317]

There's not enough economically priced carbon around to build it either. Maybe the test vehicle can be done, but the full-scale production model will be massive.

Yeah, but once we discover the one of Jupiter's moons has massive diamond deposits, then we will!

That's a reference to 2061, part of Arthur C. Clark's 2001: A Space Odyssey series... and they did use it to build a space elevator. I'm surprised it was not included in the list of sci-fi books. Does anyone remember if RingWorld (Larry Niven) had such elevators reaching out to the ring?

[RightWhale]

The elevator doesn't swing around above and below the equatorial plane.

Fascinating. One might at first think that the cable would swing around the equator trying to reach an equilibrium. Of course, this view of being held constantly to one side north or south of the equator makes a great deal of sense, and adds to tension on the cable.

[edwin hubble]

Boris,

Any thoughts on Clarke's non-equatorial design from Fountains of Paradise?

In his analysis Clarke found the Andes equatorial peaks and Kilimanjaro on the equator to present unstable conditions. His solution was to go off equator by 7 degrees to Sri Lanka. (co-incidentally his home).

[Doc On The Bay]

"..a Feat, which everyone will know was Impossible..."

MY GOD,--so there may soon come a "Time" when our "Descendants" NO LONGER BELIEVE that We ONCE WENT TO THE MOON!!

If Our "Culture" looses it's ability to " remember" our Legitimate History, we will FOREVER LOOSE our Culture, & we will FOREVER BE "Adrift" in the History of Contemporary Civilization!!

We must NEVER FORGET that WE (not the "Muslims, Jews, Bhuddists, Animists, Atheists, Christians, Taoists, Zoroastrians, etc., etc., etc.,) WENT TO THE MOON!!!

WE, (NOT the "Adherents of the BEST of "Western Civilization,") WENT TO THE MOON!!!

There can be NO petty rationalization for ANY "Behavior" worth the value of our endeavor to reach the Moon!!

And We Must Go On!!--we are DESTINED to GO ON TO MARS--& BEYOND!!

If we do NOT continue our inherenty Required "Journey," We will Likely "Devolve" into a "Humdrum Daily Entity!"

Either we "Go To The Stars," or we Involute--& go Back to "The Caves!!"

Our "Choice" is pretty Clear--Either we "Go To The Stars," or we "Go Back to the Mud!!"

I don't have a Lot of Trouble making this decision, (SUPRISE!!).

[edwin hubble]

I checked on Clarke's scheme for the space elevator in his book, Fountains of Paradise.

He used a trick...
He described the elevator anchor at what appeared to be the island of Sri Lanka, but he made it a fictional island ... at the equator. I had forgotten that glitch.

There you go.