The Space Elevator Kurumi Ota
The Space Elevator - Report
A way for untrained humans to travel into space is only a one benefit a space elevator will bring. The Space Elevator is a transportation to travel into space without using rockets. Many scientists are enthusiastically participating in the study, making it possible to be completed in the near future.
The space elevator will be made out of mainly four parts: a stationary satellite, climbers, cables and a counterweight. A stationary satellite is a satellite that is always in the same place of the sky. This is because it will revolve the Earth at the same speed of Earth’s rotation right above the equator. Climbers are the part of the elevator where cargo and people are actually going to ride. The climbers will be made with techniques such as having oxygen inside so that living beings can survive in it. The cable is the main tube that connects the Earth’s surface and the stationary satellite. The cable will stretch from the Earth’s surface through the atmosphere and into space. The counterweight is something that will be put at the end of the cable to keep the cable taut.
The elevator will be put together in mainly three steps. First, the stationary satellite will be shot into space. Next, cables will be dropped down to the surface of the Earth and also in the opposite direction to create a counterweight. Finally, the cables and counterweight are connected. These three steps are the basic steps in creating the space elevator.
The elevator will work with the stationary satellite as the center object, 35,900 kilometers directly above the equator. The climbers will move from the surface to the satellite on the cable, carrying passengers and cargo. They will move using electricity unlike rockets which use fuel.
The elevator will have nothing to support it except for the counterweight, but it will not collapse. This is for the centrifugal and gravitational forces that pull on the elevator. Centrifugal force is the force that draws an object away from the center of a rotating body. These forces can be demonstrated by a string being spun around by a hand with a ball on its end. (Picture 1) The ball will try to fly outwards making the string taut. This force is the centrifugal force. Even though there is the centrifugal force pulling on it, the ball and string will not fly away. This is for the gravitational force pulling it inward. The ball and string not fly away of fall down unless the rotating motion (the spinning caused by the hand) ends. This demonstrates the space elevator. The hand spinning the string is Earth, string is the cable, and the ball is the counterweight. (Diagram 1) As long as the Earth is rotating and there is a counterweight to pull the cable taut, the elevator will stay in place.
A way for untrained humans to travel into space is only a one benefit a space elevator will bring. The Space Elevator is a transportation to travel into space without using rockets. Many scientists are enthusiastically participating in the study, making it possible to be completed in the near future.
The space elevator will be made out of mainly four parts: a stationary satellite, climbers, cables and a counterweight. A stationary satellite is a satellite that is always in the same place of the sky. This is because it will revolve the Earth at the same speed of Earth’s rotation right above the equator. Climbers are the part of the elevator where cargo and people are actually going to ride. The climbers will be made with techniques such as having oxygen inside so that living beings can survive in it. The cable is the main tube that connects the Earth’s surface and the stationary satellite. The cable will stretch from the Earth’s surface through the atmosphere and into space. The counterweight is something that will be put at the end of the cable to keep the cable taut.
The elevator will be put together in mainly three steps. First, the stationary satellite will be shot into space. Next, cables will be dropped down to the surface of the Earth and also in the opposite direction to create a counterweight. Finally, the cables and counterweight are connected. These three steps are the basic steps in creating the space elevator.
The elevator will work with the stationary satellite as the center object, 35,900 kilometers directly above the equator. The climbers will move from the surface to the satellite on the cable, carrying passengers and cargo. They will move using electricity unlike rockets which use fuel.
The elevator will have nothing to support it except for the counterweight, but it will not collapse. This is for the centrifugal and gravitational forces that pull on the elevator. Centrifugal force is the force that draws an object away from the center of a rotating body. These forces can be demonstrated by a string being spun around by a hand with a ball on its end. (Picture 1) The ball will try to fly outwards making the string taut. This force is the centrifugal force. Even though there is the centrifugal force pulling on it, the ball and string will not fly away. This is for the gravitational force pulling it inward. The ball and string not fly away of fall down unless the rotating motion (the spinning caused by the hand) ends. This demonstrates the space elevator. The hand spinning the string is Earth, string is the cable, and the ball is the counterweight. (Diagram 1) As long as the Earth is rotating and there is a counterweight to pull the cable taut, the elevator will stay in place.
This new transportation to space will bring an enormous amount of benefits. It will bring an easier, safer and cheaper way to travel to space. The elevator will be made to be suitable for humans to live in it. There will be no need to wear bulky, expensive space suits and have special training to ride it. This makes it easier to travel into space. The elevator does not use explosives to take off, making it much safer than rockets. The price to launch one kilogram of cargo into space presently costs $22,000. With the elevator, the price is predicted to be lowered to around 1 dollar. With this easiness, safeness and low cost, traveling into space will be possible for ordinary people. They can ride on the elevator into space just like boarding an airplane. Most likely there will only be a need to pay for a ticket to board the elevator. Another benefit is that the elevator does not use fuel like rockets, so it is very good for the environment. Also, the elevator will bring a way for humans to travel into space farther than the Moon. The cable can be extended, and growing the elevator towards planets such as Mars would be an easier process than creating the elevator. This would lead to future plans such as living on another planet. As you can see, the elevator would be a huge progress in our space technology.
As many benefits there will be in creating this space elevator, there are difficulties. There are three main difficulties. First, the cable must be extremely strong, enough to support its own weight, the climbers and everything on it, and the forces that pull on the elevator. The cable must also be light, because the heavier it is, the more weight it has to endure. It is estimated that the cable must be 180 times tougher than steel to meet the expectations. This also equal to being three times stronger than diamonds. A carbon nano tube (Picture 2) is the material closest to becoming the main substance of the cable. This tube made out of carbon shaped into hexagon shapes is one hundred times stronger than steel. It can lift up a car with a bundle of merely three hairs but is extremely light. It is presently the closest to meeting the expectations of the space elevator’s cable, but still has problems. It needs to be stronger, and cannot be made very large. Without further research, the tube will just crumble in the extension process. It is also expensive, costing 500 dollars per gram. The price must be lowered or else making the cable will cost millions of dollars. Another difficulty is creating the counterweight. Diverting an asteroid and making it the counterweight is one way. Another way to solve this problem would be extending cables, making it heavy enough to become the counterweight. Both of these ways cost are so costly, the elevator will be considered a dream again until there is a way to lower the prices. The third difficulty is how to make the climbers work. It is impossible to create climbers sitting on moving cables. The climbers must literally climb up stationary cables. Scientists are still trying to find a way to find an ideal solution to this complicated problem.
The elevator will work using natural forces efficiently and bring huge benefits in the world. There are many enormous difficulties blocking the way of creating the elevator. Once these problems are solved, though, this elevator will bring great progress in the space technology.
The elevator will work using natural forces efficiently and bring huge benefits in the world. There are many enormous difficulties blocking the way of creating the elevator. Once these problems are solved, though, this elevator will bring great progress in the space technology.
References
- "Space Elevator" http://www.orbitalvector.com/Orbital%20Travel/Space%20Elevators/Space%20Elevators.htm (January 14, 2014)
- Curtis Keith "A Space Elevator in 7" http://keithcu.com/wordpress/?page_id=417 (January 14, 2014)
- The Space Foundation "The Space Foundation: The Future is Closer than it Appears!" http://www.spaceward.org/ (January 14, 2014)
- Bonsor Kevin "How Space Elevators Will Work" http://science.howstuffworks.com/space-elevator.htm (January 14, 2014)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) http://science1.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2000/ast07sep_1/ (January 14, 2014)
- "Space elevator" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator January 12, 2014 (January 15, 2014)
Japan Space Elevator Association "What is a Space Elevator?" http://www.jsea.jp/about-se/index.html (January 16, 2014)