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Diamond Nanothreads Could Support Space Elevator (space.com)
Taco Cowboy writes with news that Penn State researchers have discovered a way to produce ultra-thin diamond nanothreads that could be ideal for a space elevator. According to the report at Space.com, The team, led by chemistry professor John Badding, applied alternating cycles of pressure to isolated, liquid-state benzene molecules and were amazed to find that rings of carbon atoms assembled into neat and orderly chains. While they were expecting the benzene molecules to react in a disorganized way, they instead created a neat thread 20,000 times smaller than a strand of human hair but perhaps the strongest material ever made. ... Just recently, a team from the Queensland University of Technology in Australia modeled the diamond nanothreads using large-scale molecular dynamics simulations and concluded that the material is far more versatile than previously thought and has great promise for aerospace properties.
How exactly does a space elevator "save" energy for lifting loads to orbit?
The same way using a ladder saves energy over using a jetpack.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
The person you heard that from was wrong.
In a rocket,:
- Rockets are quite inefficient, about 16% energy efficient to reach orbit.
- You have to lift your propellant, only to throw it all away
- The rocket not only has to do work against gravitational potential, it also has to provide lateral kinetic energy to reach orbit. The kinetic energy component is huge.
For a space elevator:
- The lifting motors are highly efficient, you just have to keep the power beaming losses reasonable.
- You only have to work against gravitational potential. The tether/earth provides the lateral kinetic energy.
The moon's rotation is tidally locked to the earth (1 rotation/month makes it hard to stay in lunar orbit unless you are really far off & anything orbiting the moon that far off would be gravitationally perturbed by the earth) makes a classical beanstalk impossible. Other solutions like a rotating skyhook are theoretically possible but the mass concentrations make even that iffy.
Posted as anon to conserve mod points.