This is a very interesting video presenting the space elevator which can best be described as an alternative to space shuttles. Wouldn't it be cool if we had cheap(relatively) access to space, imagine what possibilities would be made available which today is only limited by the huge expense of moving equipment into space.
This description of how the space elevator works if from the director of the video: The Space Elevator is a thin ribbon, with a cross-section area roughly half that of a pencil, extending from a ship-borne anchor to a counterweight well beyond geo-synchronous orbit. Electric vehicles, called climbers, ascend the ribbon using electricity generated by solar panels and a ground based booster light beam.
We have no idea if this is possible to do or not but it certainly sound like it could work, were looking forward to more videos about the space elevator. If you are interested in the details of the space elevator you could cheek out this study on the space elevator from NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts.
We know that a space elevator is possible, in that it violates no natural laws. I will allow that we don't know if the material that must make up the ribbon is practical to make in the required strength and amounts, and that we don't have a legal environment to build and operate one.
But things are looking up - ten years ago this was all in the realm of science fiction. Now it's just come over the horizon into the land of 'maybe'.
Brian Dunbar
LiftPort
Brian Dunbar on March 22, 2007.
A tether that long will probably produce extremely high voltages as it travels at a high rate of speed through Earths ionosphere. Consider the experiment that was supposed to be conducted in the late 90's using a space shuttle and a 13-mile-long cable. Unfortunately I can't find the results of that particular experiment on a casual internet search. There was an earlier experiment planned in 1992 but part of the equipment jammed and the experiment was aborted. Are the land based and spaced base anchors prepared for the danger of these high voltages?
A relevant link:
http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=1122
Mr. D. Gibson on May 7, 2007.
Um... geocentric orbit. the 'tether' would be traveling at the SAME speed as the ionosphere.
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