Scientists reach for the stars with space elevator

[glenc (Glen)]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/specials/...935641851.html
The lift's carriages, which will themselves require new feats of engineering, would move up and down 35,000 kilometre-long cables...
Professor Yoshio Aoki, a director of the space elevator association and a professor of precision machinery engineering at Nihon University, said the cables would need to be 180 times stronger than steel...

[vindictive666 (John)]

wonder what the elevator music will be like







regards john

[bloodhound31]

35,000km?!!!!!!

.......hope no-one farts.......



wasn't me....

[g__day (Matthew)]

Imagine the effort and cost to raise that kind of cable into space - beggars the mind )technically and economically)!

[Terry B]

There has been lots of research about this concept. The trouble is that the cable would have to be manufactured or at least carried into space and lowered down. I wouldn't want to be around when they are trying to snag the bottom of it and tether it to the ground.

[vindictive666 (John)]

Originally Posted by Terry B

There has been lots of research about this concept. The trouble is that the cable would have to be manufactured or at least carried into space and lowered down. I wouldn't want to be around when they are trying to snag the bottom of it and tether it to the ground.

just curious how would so much cable be taken up to space ?

1 balloons ?

[TrevorW]

Originally Posted by vindictive666

just curious how would so much cable be taken up to space ?

1 balloons ?

The most feasible way of doing this would be to set up a smelter and manufacturing complex in orbit then using solar energy melt raw materials obtained from the moon. Such a facility could then be used to manufacture metals for other projects.

[Ric]

A fascinating concept and very visionary.

[JimmyH155]

This idea is old hat. They have pinched the idea from Kim Stanley Robinson's books "Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars." It is a ripping good yarn and I recommend it to all astronomers. It concerns the doings of the first 100 settlers on Mars. They capture one of Mars' satellites which is made of chrondite (a form of carbon) then they send up robots to turn the chrondite into carbon fibre tube, 9 metres diameter, then lower it to the surface.
Of course the inevitable happens and they have a war, and someone disconnects the elevator at the outside end and it comes crashing down to Mars and wraps itself around the equator. Hits so hard, that the carbon turns into buckey balls and diamonds. Ripper of a story

[Hammer (Andrew)]

I note the Aurther C Clarke also wrote about space elevators in his 2001 series, but since the last one was written in 1997 he may of borrowed the concept.

Still since most humans were living in low earth orbit in the series i wonder why the cables need to be 35,000 kilimetres long.

Getting into orbit a couple of hundred k's up would be enough.

Oh i just read the bottom of the smh article

It is thought the concept of the lift was first envisioned by the great science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke in his 1979 novel The Fountains of Paradise.


Guess the materials are getting close to

http://www.fsu.edu/news/2005/10/20/steel.paper/


but after watching an austar show on the keck telescope I am still to spun out

[JimmyH155]

The reason for the cable being so long is so as to get the outward end equal to geo-stationary orbit. That way, only a small mass would be able to keep the tube at the correct tension - ie mass pulling outwards balances restraining force on the anchor at ground level. Simple eh???
If tube was any shorter, then too much energy would be needed to keep it in the low orbit and constant rockets would be needed - like with the ISS - it is contunually losing height and has to be boosted back into correct orbit.
In the book Red Mars, they strapped cable cars to the outside of the 9 metre tube and these went whizzing up and down - the trip took a few days in the book. The cable cars could be about 10 metres wide (circumference of 9 metres tube is over 27 metres) and many thick, so a nice cozy hotel set up could be maintained. Some going up, some going down..... The mind boggles

[g__day (Matthew)]

Pardon my ignorance - but why not just build a great big chimney, seal it at the top, fill it with water and use buoyancy to move things up and down?

So long as you could construct the chimney from strong materials - you'd be fine!

[fwhong (Wai Hong)]

I wonder how much it'll cost to be the first on board that lift?

"..5 billion dollars" sheesh.. That's a lot of money

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

talk about "Jack and the bean stalk" ideas

now all we have to do is wait for Superman to lift the bloody thing up in the sky



geoff

[g__day (Matthew)]

How about build a gigantic tornado machine and us its up draft to sling things into space!

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

the words "worm hole" come to mind Matthew

and fantasy becomes reality

geoff

[Kevnool (Kev)]

What a fantastic lightning conductor <---maybe thats there thought to power it......lol.........cheers Kev.

[BalderAsir (Nick)]

again science fiction leads the way lol