Elevator Into Space, Going Up...
According to this article, the LiftPort Group wants to create a space elevator by 2018. They recently tested a cable a mile long, although the robot climbers didn't make it very far.
The idea behind a space elevator is simple in theory and complex in practice. Basically, you anchor a cable to the ground on one end, put a heavy weight on the other end, and fling the end with the weight into space. If the cable is the right length, the weight will be sitting right at the correct height to be in geosynchronous orbit, meaning that even though the Earth spins on it's axis, the weighted end of the rope will stay stationary relative to the spot on the ground it's anchored to. However, the centripugal (sp?) force of the Earths spinning will keep the rope pulled tight, as it's constantly trying to fly off into space. From there, you can build robot climbers to climb from the ground up into space to deliver payloads.
The hard part is building a cable strong enough to support it's own weight. To do this, it needs to be extremely thin, and we don't have the technology to do that yet (although there are some promising starts). The second challenge is to build the climbers, but I think that's probably the easier of the two main challenges.
In any case, the ultimate goal is to lower the cost and risk of delivering goods into space. Rockets can (and do) explode and they're expensive since they're not reusable.
2018 seems a bit optimistic to me, though. I'm still waiting for my flying cars!
The idea behind a space elevator is simple in theory and complex in practice. Basically, you anchor a cable to the ground on one end, put a heavy weight on the other end, and fling the end with the weight into space. If the cable is the right length, the weight will be sitting right at the correct height to be in geosynchronous orbit, meaning that even though the Earth spins on it's axis, the weighted end of the rope will stay stationary relative to the spot on the ground it's anchored to. However, the centripugal (sp?) force of the Earths spinning will keep the rope pulled tight, as it's constantly trying to fly off into space. From there, you can build robot climbers to climb from the ground up into space to deliver payloads.
The hard part is building a cable strong enough to support it's own weight. To do this, it needs to be extremely thin, and we don't have the technology to do that yet (although there are some promising starts). The second challenge is to build the climbers, but I think that's probably the easier of the two main challenges.
In any case, the ultimate goal is to lower the cost and risk of delivering goods into space. Rockets can (and do) explode and they're expensive since they're not reusable.
2018 seems a bit optimistic to me, though. I'm still waiting for my flying cars!
posted by Tarindel @ 10:49 AM
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