Japan To Test Mini 'Space Elevator' (phys.org)

Zorro shares a report from Phys.Org: A Japanese team working to develop a "space elevator" will conduct a first trial this month, blasting off a miniature version on satellites to test the technology. The test equipment, produced by researchers at Shizuoka University, will hitch a ride on an H-2B rocket being launched by Japan's space agency from southern island of Tanegashima next week. The test involves a miniature elevator stand-in -- a box just six centimeters (2.4 inches) long, three centimeters wide, and three centimeters high. If all goes well, it will provide proof of concept by moving along a 10-meter cable suspended in space between two mini satellites that will keep it taut. The mini-elevator will travel along the cable from a container in one of the satellites. The movement of the motorized "elevator" box will be monitored with cameras in the satellites.

Comments

A ten meter tether is not a space elevator

[Geoffrey.landis]

A ten meter tether is not a space elevator, and is not really anything like a space elevator.

Twenty kilometer tethers have already been demonstrated in space, notably the NASA Small Expendable Deployer System Experiments
(SEDS and SEDS II): http://www.daviddarling.info/e...

Ultimate strength of nanotubes yet to be seen

[Geoffrey.landis]

The problem is that CNTs are strong enough, if manufactured perfectly. Flaws in the manufacturing process, even ones that lead to only a few atoms being misaligned, reduce tensile strength by 100x or more.

Not clear. The predicted high ultimate strength of nanotubes is entirely theoretical, it has yet to be experimentally demonstrated.

Carbon nanotubes are strong enough in an idealized theory that doesn't allow bonds to shift. If you include the fact that the hexagonal rings spontaneously shift the bonds to form pentagonal rings or heptagonal rings under stress, they don't reach that ideal strength. It's not clear that you can stabilize the hexagon only structure.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2093356-carbon-nanotubes-too-weak-to-get-a-space-elevator-off-the-ground/