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Carefully Timed Jerks Could Power Space Elevator

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the pull-harder-and-faster dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "BBC has an interesting article on the long-standing issue of how to power the 'climber' that would ascend a space elevator into space. Previous ideas have included delivering microwave or laser power to the climber beamed from the Earth's surface, but now European Space Agency ground station engineer Age-Raymond Riise has demonstrated a device that could provide a "lift into space" for cheaper space missions along a 100,000-km long tether anchored to the Earth. Riise demonstrated sending power mechanically by providing carefully timed jerks of the cable at its base with a broomstick to represent the cable held in tension, an electric sander to provide a rhythmic vibration to the bottom of the stick, and three brushes representing the climber with their bristles pointing downwards allowing the climber assembly to slide upward along the broomstick as it moved slightly downward, but grip it as it moved slightly upward. 'It would be possible to make a suspension system that completely decouples the cabin where the passengers are,' says Riise. 'For them it would be a linear movement with very little disturbance.' Riise says that he has been approached by commercial elevator companies, who are researching new ideas for elevators in superscrapers where the simplicity of the approach makes it attractive when compared to other ideas for powering lifts, such as compressed air."

4 of 270 comments (clear)

  1. Jerks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    How do you time a jerk? What exact activity of said jerk would you measure? I mean, I don't like mean people, but how will they power the space elevator? This is more ridiculous than the buttered bread on cat's back train to Chicago.

  2. Re:I don't think this will work by SixAndFiftyThree · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Some things you should consider:

    1. you'll need either high amplitude or high frequency to get up to a useful speed

    2. the design of a space elevator is already constrained by tension in the cable, and this scheme will lead to more tension, plus risk of fatigue fracture

    3. how to power more than one vehicle at a time

    4. what to do about the person who confuses vibration with jerking

  3. Has been seeing for decades, too by Chemisor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    > Actually, this is something the average person can see at home.

    If anyone here had been a kid back in the last century, we could all have shared the memory of kite riders (no, I don't really know what they are called in english). While flying a kite, put a piece of paper on the string, and in a strong wind it will ratchet itself up. You could improve them, of course, one of the favorite mods being a release rod which would release the payload upon reaching the kite. You couldn't lift a lot of weight this way, but strategic stinkbomb bombardment was possible. Yes... Kids these days are sure missing out on a lot of things...

  4. Re:I call bullshit by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I never found Bozo the Clown particularly funny. Of course, the fact that Carl Sagan, who originated that quote, laughed is fairly easy to explain.