Space elevator contest proposed

Originally posted by American Mad Man

Originally posted by sardion2000
It would pay for itself in less then a decade of regular service.

That changes my opinion. If it could be a money MAKER in the future, then it will probably happen.

My question then becomes, how do you build such a thing. I mean, building sky scrapers is one thing, but building a 62,000 mile elevator into space is a whole different beast.

Well yeah just think about all the natural resources we have on the moon let alone the whole solar system. The first trillionaires are gonna come from the private space mining industry whenever that gets off the ground.

Here's an interesting article i found on a proposal for a lunar elevator

www.thespacereview.com...

The hurdles to overcome are less steep, and much more feasible, defiantly would be a good stepping stone for earth space elevators and even titan and mars elevators.

[edit on 7-9-2004 by rufi0o]

[edit on 7-9-2004 by rufi0o]

The 2006 X Prize "elevator/climber" games are being held in New Mexico this weekend. Here's a link:

www.elevator2010.com...

Enjoy!

Victor K.

43"
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fixed linky

[edit on 18-10-2006 by masqua]

That idea is just fantastic BUT.....even if we did build this elevator to space, what would hold it in low Earth orbit...I could be wrong here but Earth turns on itself so my thought on this is wouldnt the tubes wobble and stuff??I mean it would be 16,000 miles long...what would hold it stable and keep it from falling?

One last thing, 16,000 miles.....that's a long way up there...how long would it take for the platform to reach the top???

anyone?!?

I found this to go with my previous These are some of those few other words of space elevator wisdom from: Michael K. Heney;

"Keep in mind that the tether is not a rigid structure. If the CM is beyond GEO, (in the terrestrial case), the system will be in an orbit of more than 24 hours, and will tend to lean "backwards" - which has the effect of dropping the CM, until it's in a 24 hour orbit and back in balance."

"If the CM is beyond L1 in the lunar case, (looking from the moon), it's in a LOWER earth orbit than the moon and L1, it'll tend to move ahead of the moon, leaning forward, until it reaches a balance point."

"Basically, you can put the sytem under tension, but it won't stay there - it'll seek a new equilibrum point. In the case of a terrestrial tether, the perturbations are small and may be manageable, in the case of the lunar tether, the perturbations are huge and the "balance point" is highly dynamic."

"Where you get into trouble is if your CM passes *through* the balance point and ends up closer to the surface. Then it's no longer under tension - it's under compression. And down it falls. If your CM was lagging behind the ground anchor point when it went low, the tether starts to kink as the CM catches up, further dropping the CM and accelerating the process. If the CM was directly above or ahead of the ground anchor point when it goes low, it tightly winds itself around the earth, with the CM dropping as the angle away from vertical increases."

post

Originally posted by rocques22
That idea is just fantastic BUT.....even if we did build this elevator to space, what would hold it in low Earth orbit...

A counterweight places well beyon the center of gravity to keep the tether under tension. Yes, nanotube ribbons will be flexible due to the inherint thinness.

I could be wrong here but Earth turns on itself so my thought on this is wouldnt the tubes wobble and stuff??I mean it would be 16,000 miles long...what would hold it stable and keep it from falling?

You mean, what would keep it from ripping and flying off into space. Also, if it should rip at below the center of gravity(unlikely since the ribbon will taper) the ribbon will gently drap itself around the globe and the majority would burn up in the atmosphere.

One last thing, 16,000 miles.....that's a long way up there...how long would it take for the platform to reach the top???

anyone?!?

Approximately a day.