Elevator to the Moon to become reality in 8 years!

The LiftPort Group, a US-based privately-owned company, with former NASA researcher Michael Laine at the head, is planning to build a space elevator to the Moon. The idea of a space elevator stipulates a rocket-free way to transport people and cargoes into orbit with the use of a special cable.

The California-based company founded by former NASA engineer has developed a cheap and easy way to get to the lunar surface. The project is based on a special ribbon cable, on which transport modules and autonomous robots will travel. At first, the researchers plan to test the system on the planet: the test elevator will be 2 kilometers high. Afterwards, a working system will be built. Initially, the company will use a space elevator to connect the Moon with a specially designed space station. The station will then be connected to a platform on Earth.

Company President Michael Laine believes that it will take eight years to build the elevator. The construction will require only a single launch of a spacecraft that would technically resemble the famous Soviet Sputnik-1. It is assumed that such an elevator can already become a part of modern-day reality taking into consideration the current level of the technological development.

The space elevator, scientists say, will help people build manned bases on the Earth’s natural satellite and organize the extraction of helium-3 there – a raw material that will solve global problems of the shortage of energy resources, writes EnergySafe. According to most pessimistic estimates, the reserves of helium-3 on the Moon will be enough for Earth’s population for at least 1,000 years.

LiftPort Group does not doubt its success. The company is going to attract potential investors after the tests that will be conducted on the funds raised on the Internet. NASA, where Michael Lane worked before, has already evinced interest in the project, reportsFreeSMI.by.

The idea of a space elevator is not new. For the first time, it was put forward by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1895. Afterwards, the idea received detailed analysis in the works of scientist Yuri Artsutanov, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta wrote.

Source

A elevator to the moon in 8 years? I just hope it's safe because that's a long ways away from Earth so I can only pray that they get this one right and who knows, maybe it will bring out other ideas of what they can build outside of the Earth's orbit. Honestly, I can see Humanity colonizing the around the Earths orbit in no time at all! I hope you all enjoy this article!

*MODs if this is in the wrong spot please put it in the right forum. I wasn't sure where to put this one.

Isn't it somewhat impossible? As the moon circulates around our planet, that "cable" would wrap itself around earth no?

reply to post by Xquizit


That's a good question. I'm wondering how they will be able to accomplish but couldn't think of how they couldn't but you sir asked the right question.

there is a jokes forum on the site

Originally posted by Xquizit
Isn't it somewhat impossible? As the moon circulates around our planet, that "cable" would wrap itself around earth no?

Yup, Like a ball of wool!

A space elevator is "feasible" with a geostationary satellite being at the terminus and the base being located on the Earth's equator. The problem is, there is no material currently available which could support its own weight. Pretty scary situation if the damned thing breaks.

An elevator to the Moon? No.

IT IS AGREED AND ORDERED that Respondents, Michael Laine and LiftPort, Inc., and their agents and employees each shall cease and desist from offering or selling securities in violations of RCW 21.20.140, the securities registration section of the Securities Act of Washington.

www.dfi.wa.gov...

reply to post by Xquizit


AAHAHA tethering to the moon!!! Yes quite right it does seem impossible. I read about this same thing on kickstarter a few days ago.

Space elevator is understandable. But tethering that elevator to the moon is nigh impossible.

Originally posted by lacrimaererum
there is a jokes forum on the site

Except this ain't no joke, else I would have put in the jokes forum and laughed about how earth would turn into a ball of wool and all that's left for God to do is create a gigantic cat to play with it.

Originally posted by Phage
A space elevator is "feasible" with a geostationary satellite being at the terminus and the base being located on the Earth's equator. The problem is, there is no material currently available which could support its own weight. Pretty scary situation if the damned thing breaks.

An elevator to the Moon? No.

IT IS AGREED AND ORDERED that Respondents, Michael Laine and LiftPort, Inc., and their agents and employees each shall cease and desist from offering or selling securities in violations of RCW 21.20.140, the securities registration section of the Securities Act of Washington.

www.dfi.wa.gov...

edit on 8/30/2012 by Phage because: (no reason given)

Ok..

Now I see why Phage is so popular around these parts. Nice of you to join us

reply to post by Phage


So this idea was from the beginning a scam to separate stupid people from their money? They should have proposed a slightly less bat# insane idea instead of saying they'll build it all the way to the moon.

There is a litle more info here on how it "could" be done.

But seems imposible with todays material.

inhabitat.com...

Yeah, one big tornado or hurricane and bye bye elevator. It wouldn't have to actually reach the moon's surface, just come close to it and have a transfer station, I could see that. Timing and such would seem to be involved because of position and temperatures. That might be a little iffy. I would like to see what they build that can withstand -280 to 260 degrees Fahrenheit and work with no problems. I love the idea.

The article pretty much does all the work for you.

The California-based company founded by former NASA engineer has developed a cheap and easy way to get to the lunar surface. The project is based on a special ribbon cable, on which transport modules and autonomous robots will travel. At first, the researchers plan to test the system on the planet: the test elevator will be 2 kilometers high. Afterwards, a working system will be built. Initially, the company will use a space elevator to connect the Moon with a specially designed space station. The station will then be connected to a platform on Earth.

Company President Michael Laine believes that it will take eight years to build the elevator

I bolded the relevant parts. The company claims to have developed a cheap and easy technique...using a special ribbon cable... !!!

Now from wikipedia:

A space elevator is a proposed type of space transportation system.[1] Its main component is a ribbon-like cable (also called a tether) anchored to the surface and extending into space.

en.wikipedia.org...

If it works or not I don't know.. but the article linked to all the info, so 65% of the questions being asked are already answered..

reply to post by TheProphetMark


SnF op good article

i dont see them being able to link the moon and earth though, the moon orbits the earth, thereby making a solid connection impossible.

I would like to see how they are planning to connect the moon, to a satellite installation, then to the ground. moon to satellite works, earth to satellite works, earth to sat to moon doesnt make any sense at all.

Ah, yes, the Liftport people. They've actually been around for awhile. They started in Bremerton, about ten miles across the Sound from Seattle where Laine owned a downtown office building that was foreclosed upon, so he had to move back to his mother's house. They have a website and a kickstarter campaign that has raised over $40,000 on a goal of $8,000.

I believe they got into trouble because they held a lottery to win 1,000 Liftport stock options which was really a way to canvass for names of potential investors. This was back in 2006.

I find it difficult to imagine that people would be willing to invest in a Moon elevator when you can't even get them to invest in building an efficient high-speed railroad system which might at least have some chance at giving them a return on that investment.

Oh, yeah, Helium-3. Let's fire up our fusion reactors with it! Oops. We don't have any!

reply to post by inverslyproportional


also forgot to add, as far as i know, at this time, there s no known material that can withstand its own weight under gravity for the, 22,000 miles it take to reach the geosync sat station. (obviously the "tether" will only be supporting about 60 miles of its own total weight total since after it gets high enouh it will be in orbital freefall.)

carbon nano tubes are the closest analogue, and they are nowhere near the required scale to produce enough for even a 22thousand mile long tether just to geosync orbital stations. not to mention trying to make enough to go to the moon from earth orbit( more than likely, if it did exist, they would deploy it from one of the lagrange points between the earth and moon, then just onroll it and let gravity pull it down for you.)en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by Blue Shift


because we dont have a usable amount of helium3 here on earth. if we could just vacuum it up here like we could on the moon we would have helium3 reactors here right now. it is widely known in science as one of the most efficient fuels we have ever discovered, we just dont have any here on earth, so we have no need to develope the technology, until we have a way to bring it to the market, as all the money would only be wasted on researching somthing that has no use at present. it would be like trying to invent gasoline before the internal combustion engine, there is no use for gasoline besides the internal combustion engine, many other forms of petroleum are more useful at pretty much every task in the world than gasoline, except as power for an internal combustion engine.

so as soon as there is a way to acquire the helium3 in a marketable way, there will be helium3 reactors everywhere.

Originally posted by inverslyproportional
so as soon as there is a way to acquire the helium3 in a marketable way, there will be helium3 reactors everywhere.

I see the Helium-3 salesmen have gotten to you. You know Helium-3 is not necessary to build a fusion reactor, as wonderfully efficient as it may be. I personally would like to see us actually build one workable fusion reactor using something besides Helium-3 (something readily available on Earth) before I jump on the Moon mining bandwagon.