Moon Elevator

You may have heard about space elevators on earth, but what about on the moon?

moon elevator

from link
Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke famously predicted that we'd see space elevators 50 years after people stopped laughing at the idea. Jerome Pearson has been thinking about space elevators since the early 1970s, and he's been watching the growing enthusiasm (and fading chuckles) with great interest. But he knows there are significant challenges in engineering and materials that still need to be overcome, so he's suggesting NASA build an elevator on the Moon first. And the agency is taking the idea seriously.

Carbon nanotubes will be what is used for the Earth version but those are can only ba made in the lab, being able to mass produce it is still several years away. But since the moon has 1/6 the gravity it can be made with our current tech, It would use a extremely strong fiber called M5, a high-strength, synthetic fiber that excelled both as a ballistic fabric and a composites material, perhaps the strongest and most versatile fiber technology ever created. So its only logical that we will use M5 until carbon nanotubes becomes a reality.

The cable would be a single long piece, but Boeing or Lockheeds biggest newest rockets can haul it to the moon.

Nasa has given $75,000 to Star Technology and Research study the concept further, and if it still looks like a good idea they will move on to phase II.

Do you like this Idea? or not

Yes, that's an awesome idea. easy way into space. cost a lot to build, but little to run because you could recover a good bit of the energy that it takes to get up there on the way back down. Hopw they think of soe way to patch it if it ever gets a hole in it like a satalite of small asteroid.

Basically we are building a single long, actually very long pipe between Earth and Moon?

wow...that is crazy.

I say the guy has been watching too many Sci Fi movies.

Surf

Originally posted by surfup
Basically we are building a single long, actually very long pipe between Earth and Moon?

wow...that is crazy.

I say the guy has been watching too many Sci Fi movies.

Surf

- do you know anything on space elevators?

Its a strong ribbon (cable), not a pipe.

and and its not talking about conecting the earth and the moon (Which by the way is impossible). Space elevators have long being a dream but in our lifetime they will be built, get your head outta your ass and you will see that its not just some Sci-Fi movies or even a far fetched dream but very real, if it was fake then why did a url=http://liftport.com/progress/index.php?blog=9&title=lifter_success]MIT group[/url] build a scale model one? If it was fake why did nasa gine this group of people $75,000? If it was fake why is their countless books and sites explaning in great detail on how it can be done? If it was fake then why last year did nasa set aside $500,000 on the earth to space version?

Several millions of dollar are going to the space elevator concept, in developing how it will work to creating carbon-nanotubes in the lab and studing ways to mass produce the incredibly strong cable.

Although it would take nearly a decade to build everything, at a cost of 6-10 billion it would take long for it to pay for itself and start making loads of cash. It would cost around 100-500 dollars per pound to go into orbit, which may sound like alot but its not when you compare it to todays rockets which cost 10,000-20,000 dollars per pound. And its safe for the environment, because it would only need electricity which could be beamed up to it by a laser beam underneath it on the ground and it would collect the beams power from solar cells underneath the elevator, or it could also be powered by a future fuel cell.

How does it climb? by tracks with wheels that are on both sides of the ribbon and the more gravity and force there is the ingenious system would be setup so that the wheels push harder together so they would slip, then when it get pretty high and theres not as much gravity it would use less power because it doesn't need as tight of a grip on the cable.

Do you now understand how it all works. But of course what I explained was for an earth one, the moon one would be far easier to build and could be done by 2020, which could really help us in colonizing it and help to send people and things to Mars.



[edit on 19-11-2004 by Murcielago]

I accept I don't know a whole lot, but from that picture of yours, I had a similar idea of what it looked like.

Instead of using fuel to come up and down it would rely on the elevator.

Surf

EDIT: My bad, I guess I am the one who has been seeing a lot of sci fi movies.

Thanks for explaining.

Surf

[edit on 11/19/2004 by surfup]

Just litte detail, earth's end of it would have to be in earth's orbit so we would still need way to get things to that point.

Reason for this is that time it takes from moon to make one revolution around earth is month but earth rotates around its axle once per day.

So we can't directly connect earth to moon with any elevator or cable.

Originally posted by E_T
So we can't directly connect earth to moon with any elevator or cable.

That was exactly what I was thinking... but we could have it on a track or something, rolling against the motion of Earth so it stays on target with the Moon at all times. But A) That would cost FAR too much; 2) Who the hell would want that monstronsity rolling through their backyard?

Otherwise, I think the concept of a space elevator is great... But to the Moon? Not so much. Not saying that that is $75,000 down the tube though, since new technologies or breakthroughs may occur to help move the space elevator forward.

E_T
Just litte detail, earth's end of it would have to be in earth's orbit so we would still need way to get things to that point.

??? - are you talking about a earth n moon connection? becasue thats not what this is about and that wont ever happen.

I know, I just thought that it might be good to clarify that it wouldn't even be possible and that this isn't some elevator from earth to moon.


For that to become possible we have to wait until earth's rotation and moon's orbital period have been synchronized, which might take some time... only about 15 billion years

Im pretty sure he is talking about this Elevator going to some base in space, pretty much like your normal touristy place, a small mall for example, there will be some shops, prolly a hotel so guests can stay, a restaurant, you know how it is.