Let"s Build the Space Elevator!
The last space shuttle has landed.
The program has ended after many successful years.
NASA has plans now to get us into space via their new Ares rocket.
They say it will prepare us to go to Mars.
I don't think a return to solid or liquid-fuel rocket technology is the right way to go.
I support, instead, and idea originally proposed, I believe, by science fiction's most prolific author, Arthur C.
Clark: build a space elevator.
The space elevator is simple in concept.
A long cable runs from its tether on the surface of Earth up into space to a satellite in geosynchronous orbit.
("Geosynchronous" means that the satellite is hovering over a particular Earth position at all times.
It matches speed with Earth's rotation and adjusts course and orbit to stay over the target below.
) Simple in concept, yes.
In execution, the notable requirement would be a cable constructed of a material light enough to carry 200,000 miles of it up to orbit.
Too heavy for a rocket! Even the slimmest of steel cables, too heavy.
And here is where I pull onto a path Arthur C Clark did not know about back in the 60's when he wrote the trilogy "Fountains of The Earth" in which he write of the space elevator.
The technology I would employ would be nanotechnology, and construct the cable of carbon nanotubules.
Nanotechnology research continues, today we can produce but short lengths of the carbon nanotubules, but that is only a matter of time.
I will write another article about nanotechnology.
Once the cable is attached to the satellite and spun down to Earth ground level (who gets to grab that wildly swinging cable? It would amputate your arm! Machines will grab it.
) Then a larger permanent cable may be hoisted up the feeder cable just installed and itself be attached to the satellite.
We would actually want two cables, because the ride up and down in cargo or personnel cars attached to the cable is about two days, and we would be sending cars up one cable and back down the other cable with personnel or cargo, moon ore, etc.
A duplex system.
And we can build many of these all over the Earth's surface.
On the surface we would naturally have a railhead, shipping if near a port, good roads for 18-wheelers to ply with cargo, and buses with passengers.
An airport as well.
A real commerce hub for each Earth station, employing thousands of workers.
I have been so caught up in this idea that I wrote President Obama about the idea back in 2008.
The government has recently expressed their interest.
I just patented the entire system.
But this is not a "make money" scheme for me.
I am sure I will be well-compensated to license my patent.
Think, instead, of Thomas Edison and his inventions of the light bulb and AC current systems.
He changed the world.
Nanotechnology is going to change the world, more so than the "discovery" (let's say "implementation") of electricity.
With the space elevator, personnel reach space with no rocket fuel needed.
Once there, they can transfer to "local" shuttles and go work on the mining colonies of the moon and Mars.
Use that ore and build a giant spaceship with ion propulsion to achieve light or near-light speed, and get on the way to Alpha Proximi and other interstellar missions.
THe ship-building will require a huge bay and a space station of its own, and all the building materials are already on the moon.
No need to try and build a ship on Earth's surface and be constrained by weight limitations.
The future begins...
By the way, to power the travel of personnel and cargo car modules up and down the cable, I propose coating their bottoms and tops with solar panels that will receive a focused laser beam to energize them.
The personnel modules can be roomy and comfortable, even 5-start hotel quality for paying passengers.
A dining area, kitchen, recreational area, communications, etc.
The program has ended after many successful years.
NASA has plans now to get us into space via their new Ares rocket.
They say it will prepare us to go to Mars.
I don't think a return to solid or liquid-fuel rocket technology is the right way to go.
I support, instead, and idea originally proposed, I believe, by science fiction's most prolific author, Arthur C.
Clark: build a space elevator.
The space elevator is simple in concept.
A long cable runs from its tether on the surface of Earth up into space to a satellite in geosynchronous orbit.
("Geosynchronous" means that the satellite is hovering over a particular Earth position at all times.
It matches speed with Earth's rotation and adjusts course and orbit to stay over the target below.
) Simple in concept, yes.
In execution, the notable requirement would be a cable constructed of a material light enough to carry 200,000 miles of it up to orbit.
Too heavy for a rocket! Even the slimmest of steel cables, too heavy.
And here is where I pull onto a path Arthur C Clark did not know about back in the 60's when he wrote the trilogy "Fountains of The Earth" in which he write of the space elevator.
The technology I would employ would be nanotechnology, and construct the cable of carbon nanotubules.
Nanotechnology research continues, today we can produce but short lengths of the carbon nanotubules, but that is only a matter of time.
I will write another article about nanotechnology.
Once the cable is attached to the satellite and spun down to Earth ground level (who gets to grab that wildly swinging cable? It would amputate your arm! Machines will grab it.
) Then a larger permanent cable may be hoisted up the feeder cable just installed and itself be attached to the satellite.
We would actually want two cables, because the ride up and down in cargo or personnel cars attached to the cable is about two days, and we would be sending cars up one cable and back down the other cable with personnel or cargo, moon ore, etc.
A duplex system.
And we can build many of these all over the Earth's surface.
On the surface we would naturally have a railhead, shipping if near a port, good roads for 18-wheelers to ply with cargo, and buses with passengers.
An airport as well.
A real commerce hub for each Earth station, employing thousands of workers.
I have been so caught up in this idea that I wrote President Obama about the idea back in 2008.
The government has recently expressed their interest.
I just patented the entire system.
But this is not a "make money" scheme for me.
I am sure I will be well-compensated to license my patent.
Think, instead, of Thomas Edison and his inventions of the light bulb and AC current systems.
He changed the world.
Nanotechnology is going to change the world, more so than the "discovery" (let's say "implementation") of electricity.
With the space elevator, personnel reach space with no rocket fuel needed.
Once there, they can transfer to "local" shuttles and go work on the mining colonies of the moon and Mars.
Use that ore and build a giant spaceship with ion propulsion to achieve light or near-light speed, and get on the way to Alpha Proximi and other interstellar missions.
THe ship-building will require a huge bay and a space station of its own, and all the building materials are already on the moon.
No need to try and build a ship on Earth's surface and be constrained by weight limitations.
The future begins...
By the way, to power the travel of personnel and cargo car modules up and down the cable, I propose coating their bottoms and tops with solar panels that will receive a focused laser beam to energize them.
The personnel modules can be roomy and comfortable, even 5-start hotel quality for paying passengers.
A dining area, kitchen, recreational area, communications, etc.
