Right out of a Science Fiction Story
How would you like to ride on an elevator climbing at 120 mph to an elevation of 62,000 feet? This is the idea of Russian engineer Yuri Artsutanov created back in the 1960s. Not until recently was this idea taken out of science fiction and thought to be a possibility. Scientist are looking at developing nanotubes or small carbon tubes that are incredibly strong to stretch a span from the equator straight up 62,000 miles attached to a stationary object in orbit. Scientist say there is nothing wrong in the physics of the idea. Their plan is to send a shuttle into orbit with a thin ribbon to connect the nanotubes to. From here they will build the 62,000 mile long elevator shaft that will hopefully transport people and satellites much safer and cheaper. The current price is $10,000.00 to $40,000.00 per kilogram to transport to space. The projected cost for the elevator is $100 per kilogram. Later year a $400,000 first prize will be award "in the Space Elevator Games at the X Prize Cup this October held in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The winning design for the Space Elevator will win the $400,000 prize and their design will be the basis of the development of the Space Elevator, project completion date, 20 years.
posted by Anonymous @ 9/19/2006 07:19:00 PM
1 Comments:
Crazy Horse How could they possibly build a ladder basically 62,000 feet in the air
Our plans call for a total length of 100,000 kms. It's a balanced structure under tension - it hangs down (in) and up (out) from the midpoint at Geosynchronus orbit.
Also how would this help transport people into outer space because they obviously can't fit through nanotubes.
Ah - snark. You attach a vehicle to a CNT ribbon and ascend mechanically.
nksfpk1 The biggest reason why is that the ozone layer would put it on fire and blow it to pieces.
I've heard many objections but this is the first time I've heard that ozone will set carbon on fire. Can you expand on this?
ne more thing to think about is, what if a small meteor or something collides into it, there goes billons of dollars down the tube, and a waste of time and money.
Depends on how you structure the ribbon. There are three belts where damage from junk is most likely - the ribbon can be shaped in those regions to be damage resistant. And of course the same techniques that were used to build the SE can be used periodically to maintain it.
But, sure, a large enough bit of junk can bring the whole thing down. We're looking at ways of mitigating this problem.
Thanks for blogging!
Brian Dunbar
Liftport
Post a Comment
<< Home