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Space Elevator vs Wildlife

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the check-and-mate dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The longest test yet of the technology that might one day lead to space elevators has revealed some unusual problems. From the article: "There were several unexpected encounters with wildlife. More than a dozen insect egg colonies had been laid on the tether and curious bats flew around the balloons, apparently attracted by the sound made by the tether's vibrations. Late in the test, swallows were also seen swooping down on the balloons, possibly to sip the morning dew on their surfaces." Maybe all the critters just want to go to space too."

4 of 307 comments (clear)

  1. Other issues and possible resolution by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Once it gets out into space, wouldn't the long carbon tether become charged?

    Like the static we discharge walking around the office, any critters setting up home will be in for a nasty shock.

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
  2. Buckle and deformation problems by radarsat1 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The team learned that if the tether is pulled hard by wind, it starts to buckle and deform slightly, creating crinkles. The robot climber hit these crinkles and could not proceed because they made the tether too thick for it to handle.

    "We broke our robot by doing this," Laine says. "It's the kind of failure we never would have learned had we only been doing 6-hour tests." Future designs will have to incorporate sensors to tell the robot when it is about to encounter varying thicknesses.
    Strong but thin


    Hm... do you think that if your tether is beginning to BUCKLE AND DEFORM, you might have a slightly more fundamental problem than just needing to redesign the robot?

    Well, I'm sure they're aware of it. But this kind of thing probably won't become more obvious until they do a 6-month test, I guess. Or 6-years. But the potential for your tether to break off eventually is probably going to be a slight drawback.
  3. Ants by StarfishOne · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Crazy thought:

    Assuming ants can climb up the elevator, I wonder which altitude they could reach, given the fact that they supposedly don't need a lot of oxygen with their small bodies. (I know that ants don't have lungs and breathe through tiny pores, but still)

  4. Re:What about Airplanes? by green1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    we already have proven systems in place to keep air traffic away from stationary objects, what I'd be more concerned with would be failure modes, if something were to cause the tether to break, (wether it be your airplane, or any of a number of other situations) it would seem that there would be a LOT of tether to fall to earth... I certainly wouldn't want to be under it if it fell... and with the length of the tether, I would expect a rather large radius that would have the potential to be affected.

    I would bet this has already been thought of, but I'd be curious to see what came of these thoughts?