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Space Elevator Company Fission
Dag Maggot writes "Highlift Systems seems to be going through some turbulent times with cofounder Michael Laine leaving to form his own space elevator company LiftPort. Interestingly, Liftport pledges to be a "transparent" company, and as such have provided the full text of the original space elevator proposal which was made to NASA NIAC." We mentioned Liftport before, but the proposal is new and quite interesting.
The space elevator seems to be the most promising alternative to the Shuttle program. The biggest problem are the carbon-nanotubes, it is not clear yet, how they are to be produced and a BIG quantity of them will be necessary for the project.
... or the poor connection of the server ... I hope for the first.
The site seems to be slashdotted already - 3 minutes, this should be a Slashdot record. On the other side it indicates the interest to the subject
I've spoken with Mr Laine concerning Lift Port systems. From what he told me, he is not leaving High Lift. Lift port was simply created for some sort of capital creation reason.
So, as far as I know, Michael Laine has not left the Highlift...
You lower the rope from the space station in geosynchronous orbit then tether the bottom to a ground station (in this case floating in the ocean). You also need a counter balance beyond geosynchronous orbit to keep the whole thing in tension.
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
Here are the google caches of the front page, and their FAQ:
Front Page
FAQ
Google's cache of liftport.com: http://216.239.57.100/search?q=cache:TiE-9Ofu6fUC: www.liftport.com/+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
A nice article on space elevators without the fancy scientific buzzwords can be found here
You can also construct the cable in a satellite that's on geosynchronous orbit. Molecular construction both ways, so that one end lowers itself to earth, while another grows into space and towards the space station acting as the elevator end point.
As for space elevators in general, not only does the construction pose significant obstacles, but the reality of having a tensile cable stretched from earth to the sky (literally) introduces interesting variables. Back-up plans in case a plane flies smack into the cable? Effects of wind, lightning, hurricanes? What happens if the cable snaps below geosynchronous orbit? Anyway, sure, problems abound, but there's something very exciting about the idea of building something as massive as a space elevator will be.
Also, there won't be a great deal of taper if they get the material strength they expect - about a 2:1 ratio iirc.
There is one small problem with space elevators. The cable has to carry it's own weight. If you were to use a steel wire of a few millimeters in diameter at the surface, the diameter at geostationary orbit would be about the diameter of the solar system. This is not including the counter weight.
This might seem like complete nonsens but that is from a theoretical physicist and writer, Dr Hans-Uno Bengtsson. The original reply from a "ask the expert column" in swedens biggest newspaper. Fungerar en rymdhiss?.
BTW: If the wire were to be made from kevlar it would only have to be a few hundred meters in diameter. With more exotic materials you could shrink it to less than a meter.
I wish people who believe in these conspiracies would do a bit of research first instead of going straight to alt.conspiracy. Come use some of the brain cells in your head. Ive posted a link to the jessica lynch in question. The domain name is for the person who won the Miss New York pagent. No relation to the rescued POW.
Miss New York City 2003
later,
"Im drowning here, and you're describing the water!"
You may have noticed this term being spun about in the thread; the answer is nanotubes.
A nanotube is like a bucky-ball (buckminster fullerine) but elongated into a cylinder. To the uninitiated a bucky-ball is a small macromolecule composed of 60 carbons. It looks like a football (european) and hence its name. So nanotubes are cylinders of hexagonallybonded carbon.
Potentially you could have "threads" of nanotubes that are bonded completely with strong chemical bonds, in comparison most materials we use in construction today consist of mostly much weaker interactions based on small charge dipoles and momentary charge variation (van-der-vaals force). IIRC correctly a van-der-vaals bond is about a thousand times weaker than a covalent (chemical) bond, and it is forces like these that hold the materials like kevlar together. The way the carbons bond in nanotubes should be compared to that of diamond, so in layman's terms a nanotube is a very long and very narrow cylindrical diamond.
A rope or sheet of woven nanotubes (of good length) would have a surely unbelievable tensile strength and hence people want to use them in applications like these (as well as in many other areas).
However AFAIK nobody has managed to develop nanotubes efficiently with significant length yet. However I keep seeing journals with articles on nanotubes and their practical applications so money's going into this field and it can only be a matter of time before a method of cheap production is found. The only method I know to date is vaporisation of gaphite with a laser - the resulting dust contains a variety of carbon species including bucky balls and nanotubes.
Nanotubes also conduct electricity and heat efficiently and seem to act as excellent lubricant.
The revised, second-phase report, much advanced over the first, should appear Any Day Now. Just waiting for NASA approval. There's also a book that expands on the idea.
The web server was having troubles late last night, so slashdotting only provided the final straw. We'll be back.