Space Elevator Conference Prompts Lofty Questions

itwbennett writes "Even the most ardent enthusiasts gathered at the annual Space Elevator Conference on Friday don't expect it to be built anytime soon, but that doesn't stop them from dreaming, planning, and trying to solve some of the more vexing problems. One of the trickiest questions is who's going to pay for the operational costs when an elevator is eventually built. 'It's been nine years we've been looking for someone' to study that, said Bryan Laubscher, one of the leading space elevator enthusiasts and principle at Odysseus Technologies, a company working on high-strength materials."

Comments

The major issues and such

[JoshuaZ]

Anyone interested in this issue should read the NIAC report http://www.spaceelevator.com/docs/521Edwards.pdf which discusses the issues in detail and the technical problems. Space elevators would make space travel much cheaper. But the technical issues are immense. The NIAC report carefully outlines the major issues and how they might be handled. We would need to make extremely high quality carbon nanotubes at an immense scale. We also would need to put into space a structure orders of magnitude larger than anything we've put in space. Indeed, a space elevator would be one of the largest physical structures ever made by humans. And the engineering hurdles, such as the problems of wind in the lower atmosphere, are massive. But there's nothing about the idea that is physically impossible. The primary issues are issues of scale. And the issues are being worked on. Right now, there's a lot of work on making carbon nanotubes of high quality in a large scale. Since such nanotubes would have many different applications there's a lot of funding for that and that will likely be extremely beneficial to humanity well before it scales up to anything near that needed for a space elevator. Since the nanotube manufacturing is the primary technical hurdle, this is a good thing. I doubt we will see a space elevator in my lifetime, but maybe my children, or their children, will see it. And on that thing ribbon, space travel will finally become as cheap as so many have envisioned it.

Re:Elevator to nowhere

[Baloroth]

Do you know anything about space elevators? Seriously. They're a great idea. Practically speaking, they are also very difficult, but if we could build one, the cost of traveling to orbit would become relatively speaking extremely cheap (technically, the energy requirements would stay the same. But the delta-v required would become as low as we please, making very cheap and low-power sources effective). Long term, unless we find a much better way to get to space, they are very likely to be built.

I agree that that is a very stupid question. Obviously, whoever uses it would pay for its use. Aka, commercial companies, NASA, military, etc. Since lots of people want to put stuff into space, lots of people could fund its operation .Probably it would be run by a company or government who would charge for its use (preferably, there would be at least two to introduce competition). That part is relatively easy. Its construction, on the other hand, is quite a problem. Financially and technically. However, it is a very good idea. Keep in mind, 150 years ago space travel on rockets was also just an idea in a few peoples minds. Turns out it isn't such a bad idea after all.

Plus, having an actual stairway to heaven would be pretty awesome...

Substantial Progress being made

[mbone]

One of the interesting things about this conference (which I attended) is that nanoscience researchers on Friday reported substantial improvements in the ability to make carbon nanotubes. They can now "grow" 1 cm nanotube mats, which can be spun into fibers. This is a substantial improvement from even 1 year ago.

I still think that a terrestrial space elevator is a decade out, but this year has convinced me that it is coming much faster than a lot of people think.

Re:Please Mod Parent Up

[Rei]

A couple hundred miles of maglev track versus tens of thousands of miles of unobtanium cable exposed to micrometeorites, space debris, undamped oscillations, etc. Hmm, which is more realistic...

And I have no clue what you mean by "80 mile high bridge", except to assume that you've grossly understood how a Lofstrom loop works.

The key issues are:

1) A Lofstrom loop requires no unobtanium. It may well be *physically impossible* to create the material needed for a space elevator on Earth, let alone economically practical. After all, the strongest *invididual SWNTs* measured thusfar were barely over 60GPa at the density of graphite, when you need a *bulk cable* that's ideally over 100GPa at graphite densities, preferably over 120.

2) A Lofstrom loop transmits power (the primary lift cost from both systems) at about 50% efficiency. A space elevator beams power at a couple percent efficiency. Hence a Lofstrom loop costs an order of magnitude less to operate.

So we're back to the start. Why a space elevator, apart from the fact that everyone knows of it through sci-fi? Wait, I think I answered my own question.

Re:Please Mod Parent Up

[Darfeld]

What about the fact that Space elevator allow easy atmospheric re-entry and the launch loop does not?