Notes From 3rd Annual Space Elevator Conference

colonist writes "The Space Elevator: 3rd Annual International Conference was held recently. Blaise Gassend, a PhD student at MIT, took notes. The main obstacle is still the material: transferring the strength of the nanotube to the ribbon. Other topics include: the nanotube tether Centennial Challenge; Elevator 2010, a challenge for a 250 kg climber to climb a 16 km tether; objections and refinements to Bradley Edwards' design; non-equatorial space elevators; replacing the term 'space elevator' with 'space bridge'; testing the space elevator material on cable cars; science; defense and economics."

Comments

Frontiers of Construction

[feilkin]

I think that it should be taken into consideration that almost every major project of construction was deemed impossible. Very good examples of these are the famous Golden Gate Bridge and the EuroTunnel. Everyone said it was impossible, yet they were completed. As technologoy in this area continues to develop, I think that this may be able to become a real and practical idea sometime down the road. It may not be possible now, but in ten years, who knows?

The Sailor's Rope Rule

[TheTXLibra]

Forgive my ignorance, MEMS and Nanotech has fascinated me for a while, but I don't know enough of the math behind them to tell if this is true. My grandfather, rest his soul, once told me of something called the Sailor's Rope Rule, which effectively says that the weight a rope can support is diminished by its length. Thus, a 500 lb. rope might support 500 lbs when there's less than a foot or so in length between the pully and the weight, but might only support 250 lbs when there is a good 100 ft. or so... The actual support degradation of course depends upon the width of the rope and the material the rope is made of.

So what I'm wondering is, does the same apply to the weight supported by nanotubes and other molecular chains. I figure it has to be less of a degradation due to the ionic bonds involved, but it would seem to me that, unless some Quantum rule is involved dealing with extremely small-scale weight supporting chains, that they might never overcome this problem due to the sheer thinness of the tubes, chains, etc. It might be extremely strong material, but if it's width is only a few atoms wide, wouldn't this material be, at least in single lengths, more or less useless by the time it got to a respectable length? This is, of course, excluding bundles, which make the most sense, I'm really just curious if the same rule applies to nanotubes as applies to rope.

Feasibility of the Space Elevator.

[Dissectional]

I recall Arthur Clarke pitching the initial concept for a Space Elevator some time back, and revisited the idea in 3001 : The Final Odyssey - in which he depicted planet Earth having a fully functional ( four actually ) space elevator system; which facilitated a subset of human civilisation living in low earth orbits in reduced gravity - thus invoking presumed benefits of doing so.

Anywho. He spoke a couple years ago, subsequent to 3001's release on how at the time of writing, such a feat was nigh on impossible at this stage - as the materials to construct the 'elevator' were yet to be developed. Until now. The carbon molecule Buckminsterfullerene ( C60 ), also known as 'Fullerene', is supposedly strong enough to actually make such a concept a reality - which is in part the reason the space elevator was hurled back into the limelight of late.

I think its a fascinating idea - which until we develop propulsion systems beyond the primative scope of the 1,000+ year old firecracker concept, certainly seems a more elegant way for the species to venture into Space more regulary. Or, at the very least, be the catalyst for what could perhaps become the initial stepping stones to establishing a permanent presence in space which will hopefully later lead to space initiated launches.