Space elevators?!?

Discussion in 'Astronomy, Exobiology, & Cosmology' started by orcot, Mar 23, 2007.

  1. orcot Valued Senior Member

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    http://www.elevator2010.org/index.html

    Basicly do you believe that these guy's could be correct so that we will have the knowhow to build a space elevator in the next 3 years and actually finish building one around 2020 (so before we go to mars).
    (if a new how to make a poll I would have asked if making a space elevator is a real possibility, if it was possible in less then 13 years, or if you saw a other way besides conventional rockets to reach space)

    link: space elevators for dummies
     
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  3. draqon Banned Banned

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    it will be done by 2050. W/ carbon nano tubes. We dnt have the knowledge t do it now
     
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  5. eburacum45 Valued Senior Member

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    Here is a space elevator model I have made for Celestia;
    http://www.orionsarm.com/historical/space_elevators.html

    if you have already downloaded the Celestia program, you can also download my model here as an add-on

    http://www.traitorsclaw.sitesled.com/projects/beanstalk/beanstalk.html
    (this is the smallest, most economical-on memory version, as modified by Chuft-captain at Celestia)

    There are many technical difficulties with space elevators, but I believe that they will be overcome in one way or another in the long run. Don't expect to see one in the near future.
     
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  7. Nickelodeon Banned Banned

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    What is Celestia?
     
  8. draqon Banned Banned

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  9. draqon Banned Banned

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  10. Nickelodeon Banned Banned

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  11. draqon Banned Banned

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    As life is.
     
  12. orcot Valued Senior Member

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    By 2050 so before we have been 100 years in space

    And you suspect the delay will be because mechanicly shortcommings on the wire no budgetair problems (raising the billions) logistic problems (getting the xxx ton elevator in space) chemical problems the terran oxygen eating the wire or ...
     
  13. orcot Valued Senior Member

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    eburacum45

    Do you actually feel gravity inside the orbital station of a space elevator?

    I could be wrong but I asume that if you lengten the cable then you experience a outwards force any ID on how far you should travel from GEO to experience 1G?
     
  14. Janus58 Valued Senior Member

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    And of course, in the case of fire, never use the elevator, but use the stairs instead:

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  15. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

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    What's the point, beside the view?
     
  16. orcot Valued Senior Member

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    Being able to launch things in orbit for 1/10 or 1/100 of the current price.

    Sorry Janus with today's lazynes of people I think their rather use the elevator, then stairs. 5Where do you get that

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    picture from)
     
  17. eburacum45 Valued Senior Member

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    I like that image very much too. A stairway to heaven, thirty thousand kilometers long.
     
  18. eburacum45 Valued Senior Member

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    Starting on Earth, you will feel one gee at the surface, of course. As you go up the elevator that gravitational pull will decrease until you are in zero gee at the geostartionary point. Gravity will fall off with the inverse square of the distance, so it will decrease quite rapidly in the first six thousand kilometers or so to a quarter of a gee, then more slowly after that, but there will be some gravity right out to just before the geostationary orbit.

    That is why in my model I have included a rotating section to provide artificial gravity at the geostationary point.

    As you go beyond the geostationary point onto the counterweight part of the tether you will experience an acceleration away from the Earth; some designs incorporate a long counterweight tether the same length as the Earthward component, and the outwards force at the end would equal one gee.
    Using such a tether would actually allow propellant free launches from the far end; simply travel to the end of the tether and let go, and you will be flung outwards towards your destination at an initial velocity of 9.8m/s.
     
  19. orcot Valued Senior Member

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    To the moon perhaps but wouldn't you get a 30m/s bonus if you leave the earth system and went for mars for example.

    I wonder if the elevator would have it's own little cable so the climber stays around the main cable but the passenger cabine rotates around the actual climber perhaps you would have artificial gravity. It would proberly only work ones outside the atmosphere?
     
  20. Singularity Banned Banned

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    Space elevator is a conspiracy to keep humans away from cheap space travel
     
  21. orcot Valued Senior Member

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    You figured it out? Well your totally right afther the door closes you yust get shaken around a little bid and then they take you to the studio basement (you know the same way like airplanes)
     
  22. eburacum45 Valued Senior Member

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    I don't think it would be worth doing
    - any passengers in the elevator would feel Earth's gravity at almost full strength way outside the atmosphere, and would never experience real zero gee till they got to the geostationary orbit position.

    A rotating segment might introduce an imbalance to the elevator, and would itself be imbalanced by the gravity field of Earth. You might figure out a way to do it, though.
     
  23. Singularity Banned Banned

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    Talking about airplanes here is an example,

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    http://home.cfl.rr.com/bbloss/mustang/
     

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