This article from Space.com reminds us that space elevator tech will be difficult to engineer, but worth it. Space Week was Oct 4-10, but here at Inkican Space Week is every week! Let’s nerd out about the amazing future of space elevators. They’re an amazing idea for a reason, and the next logical step in our manifest destiny to explore the stars.
First up, a little backstory thanks to Space.com. The basic design of a space elevator sounds simple. “A thick cable extends from a location within 10 degrees of the Earth’s equator up into space. The forces acting on the cable would be fierce, with Earth’s gravity trying to pull it down, and the centrifugal force on a mass at the end of the cable in Earth orbit pulling it the other way, keeping it taut.”
Okay, so that’s the concept. Why haven’t we built one, yet? Easy – we haven’t invented the technology that makes this possible … yet. “The stresses and tension of this cable would be so great that it would need to be made from a material 50 times stronger than steel, however. The only material strong enough are carbon nanotubes, which are “grown” from a process of chemical vapor deposition. The problem is, as the name suggests, carbon nanotubes are small, and the longest grown have been about 14 centimeters (5.5 inches) — that’s a big difference to the 100,000-kilometer (62,000-mile) length of a space elevator”
So there’s the rub – we don’t have a material that would work for the space elevator cable yet. More to the point, whatever cable we *do* invent would have to serve multiple functions. Some people solve this by putting the space elevator on the Moon or Mars, where lower gravity negates the need for stronger materials. Nonsense! Let’s dream big – let’s dream a future where we figure these problems out!
Dreaming of a time where we’ve figured this out isn’t so far-fetched. I’ll explain why at the end of this article. Meantime, we can and should focus on the part where space elevator tech will be difficult to invent – but it’s worth it. I discuss this in Mike.Sierra.Echo – here’s a sneak peek:
“Let me explain how we reached NeoDiamond cable,” Dad said. Waited nearly two centuries to arrive. Stronger than any known material – natural or man-made.”
“You can’t make something stronger than diamond. That’s … impossible.”
“That’s science!” Dad’s eyes twinkled.
“What did you do?”
“Someone developed a new material. Strong, flexible, and self-healing. NeoDiamond cable has multiple skins. One of them is a metal organic framework that passively collects water from the air and stores it. Not a bad system, when you think about it.”
“But, like, why water?”
“Easy,” Dad continued. Ships use water to ballast themselves. They store water inside the hull, increases stability in rough seas. We do the same thing with water on Terminus Prime, the space station attached to Evie the Asteroid.”
“Whoa, you have a space station, too?”
“We need a presence on that rock,” Dad pointed to Evie the Asteroid’s hologram. She was a large gray walnut-shaped rock – tiny rice-grain-sized habitats attached to her surface. “Nothing special at first, just enough to support elevator operations and future projects.”
“Let me see.” Dad let me zoom the holo into Evie the Asteroid’s lumpy surface. I studied her two hemispheres, feeling an odd kinship with the alien object. The NeoDiamond cable anchored to Evie’s bottom edge, driven deep into the rock for maximum strength.
Then the hologram turned into a movie. There, floating in the dust motes of the autodriver Terminus Prime built itself. Circles of habitats extended from the cable anchor. Soon, new habitats arrived. The station grew ‘upward’ until Evie resembled a space dandelion.
More elevators and structures arrived in the future. Evie had new neighbors, new structures floated nearby. I wanted to be there so bad I could taste it.
I’m not lying when I say ‘space elevator tech is difficult, but it’s worth it.’ Nothing worth anything is easy. Our universal quest for knowledge and insight has led us to some amazing places – it’s even doing that now for climate change. Check out this article from a couple of days ago:
New discovery reveals how diatoms capture CO2 so effectively – ‘A research team at the University of Basel has now discovered a protein shell in these algae that is necessary for efficient CO2 fixation. This groundbreaking discovery can provide ideas for bioengineering approaches to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere.’
One of these days, we’re going to crack the ‘climate change’ problem and when we do – life is going to get so much less scary. We’re going to get our solarpunk future – I talk about that a little in Mike.Sierra.Echo, too.
That’s the news for now – getting back to work on ‘finding a lit agent.’ Hope you’re doing something meaningful, too.
Write on! 🙂
