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Going Up?

Posted by michael on from the keep-arms-inside-the-car dept.

jmiyaku writes "The National Post is reporting that NASA has given a Seattle company a $570,000 grant to continue its investigation into constructing a space elevator. Coupled with some production-grade technology from a Japanese car company (carbon nanotube composites), this elevator could be a reality within 15 years..." The Highlift website has some more information.

2 of 515 comments (clear)

  1. Good idea for nuclear waste? by pgpckt · · Score: 5, Interesting


    Well, Yucca Mountain leaves a whole lot to be desired. I suppose the best thing to do would be to shoot the radioactive waste into the sun. You could lanuch self-guiding ships full of the stuff straight into the sun...the sun sure wouldn't care. But how do you get the stuff in space safely?

    Perhaps this space elevator? I think it should be safe(r). Use the elevator to take the radioactive waste top the space station, then build a craft to launch the waste into the sun. No more radioactive waste problem! And it would probably be cheaper than the current proposed solution, plus it would be really great for the space program and scientific development. Is this a good idea?

    --
    Lawrence Lessig is my personal hero.
  2. Impact on the environment (and the ground) by Christopher+Thomas · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Also what about the risk of it falling down? An orbital tower will wrap about the earth more than once if it falls. The description in Red Mars was particularly though provoking.

    I used to think that this would make space elevators impractically dangerous. However, this turns out not to be the case.

    The energy gained by the falling cable will be at most its gravitational potential energy, which is within a factor of two of conventional high explosives (per unit weight). Pick a maximum yield on impact, and you have a maximum cable weight. Use a thin enough cable to meet this weight restriction, and you have an adequately disaster-proof elevator (it'll make a mess, but not wreck the world's climate).

    My own calculations with a 10 kT yield/cable weight came up with something that could reasonably be used for space travel and would pay for itself if you could keep the cargo moving.

    The biggest problem is figuring out how to move cargo fast enough. I'd be leery of having induction motors mess with the cable itself, and if its a nanotube bundle they won't conduct in the right direction anyways. Winches are much too slow. Sheathing the cable with metal would only be practical for a very thin layer, which ends up being too thin to support the required currents without boiling off (I think). It's an interesting design problem.