The Space Elevator - Public or Private?

AtomicGoat writes "The Space Review reports that a Space Elevator may not get built without help from the U.S. Government, but the notion that 'the DoD can also provide a sense of fiscal discipline when dealing with large, expensive programs' sounds like an Onion story. Right now a small private company (Liftport), not NASA or the Air Force, is in the lead on revolutionary space travel."

Comments

Re:Sight seeing

[toothrage]

No you can't, you can't stay in the Van Allen radiation belt for a long time, as it would be necessary in a space elevator. For more info have a look at Wikipedia - Van Allen radiation belt .

Re:"May not get built without help from U.S. Gov..

[Log from Blammo]

A space elevator would not so much be "put up" as "lowered down". The energy and materials requirements for lowering a cable from orbit are drastically different from building a tower to the stars.

When you lower a cable, it is relatively easy to anchor it to a floating platform in the middle of the ocean. Therefore, there is no worry about equatorial real estate, local population, eminent domain, or other government-dominated nonsense.

Re:Governments will be involved

[Neil Watson]

Actually the cable seems quite safe even if part of it "falls". Please read the FAQ before such wild speculation.

Dispelling the FUD

[Darth Muffin]

I'd like to dispel some of the other rumors and replies that have already been posted. A representative from liftport was at the last Norwescon in Seatac and gave an extensive presentation.

The "elevator" falling down is less dangerous than a sheet of newspaper falling down. It's that thin. It's not going to hurt anyone. They said it will likely break up and shred into small pieces as it falls. If it breaks anywhere within the atmosphere (due to weather, terrorism, plane crash, etc) only a few miles fall down and they simply lower some more down and reattach it. The few miles you lose in the atmosphere is a pittance.

It will be in international waters, off of South America (I want to say Peru?). So the buyoff of any government for land, airspace, etc is not required.

There are a LOT of hurdles left. Not only can the nanotube fibers not be made in sufficient length and quantity, but they have not even looked at what happens to a model of a few-meter wide ribbon in the atmosphere. We also don't have a lift vehicle capable of getting the big spool and counterweight they need up just past geosync orbit.

Re:Why?

[Planesdragon]

A space elevator will be a cheap-to-operate lifter once it's in place, and it'll have the nice advantage of being able to take items FROM space as well.

You're right

[Lord Grey]

It looks like what I knew -- or thought I knew -- about space elevators is a bit dated. Which amounts to "wildly inaccurate" now. For those of you who might want to see some direct comparisons between the current technology and what was believed a few years ago, see LiftPort's Frequent Misconceptions page. It was enlightening, at least to me.

Re:Governments will be involved

[MarsDefenseMinister]

Oh for crissakes people, we're geeks supposedly, right?

geosynchronous orbit is at 22,300 miles. The reason that the cable needs to extend out past geosynchronous orbit is that the center of gravity has to be at 22,300 miles so the cable doesn't fall. That means making the cable the same length on both sides, tying off a large rock above 22,300 miles, or whatever. The point is that the cable has to have its center of gravity at 22,300 miles.

DoD Fiscal Planning Process

[Apollo Jones]

Not sure I would be so quick to dismiss the DoD budgeting process or their fiscal responsibility. A few anectodal popular press examples of fiscal excess should not be taken as the rule. (It is actually debatable if the Gov't really did purchase $800 hammers etc, or "padded" the cost of these items to cover larger non-public expenses). So, the DoD method of Planning, Programming, and Budgeting is actually very robust and has a good deal of merit. The system is widely refered to as the PPBS. It has been around since the 1960's and was first introduced by then Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. "The PPBS is a cyclic process containing three distinct but inter-related phases: planning, programming, and budgeting. The process provides for decisionmaking on future programs and permits prior decisions to be examined and analyzed from the viewpoint of the current environment (threat, political, economic, technological, and resources), and for the time period being addressed." There is both a 5-year and a 10-year horizon for this planning and budgeting. There is a connection between this process and the "big budget." And overruns, well that is another story. :) For the really curious, here is the process. http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/html/704 57.htm

For everyone who thinks they know...

[bobetov]

...what a space elevator is, how it would work, and so forth, but really doesn't, check out this link. This is the NASA-sponsored report that basically declared it open season on space elevators. It's fascinating, in-depth, and answers questions such as "how do we build it" and "what happens when in falls/gets holes in it". A must-read for space buffs.