Tuesday, September 23, 2003
Stairways to Heaven
An idea so fantastic very few science buffs dared dream it -- space elevators -- might be closer to reality than you think, according to Kenneth Chang. Given the technological advancements in building nanotubes and advanced fibres, scientists are now predicting that space elevators could come into being in as little as a decade or two, lowering satellite launch costs from $10,000 a pound to $100 a pound.
Instead of using magnetic levitation, the apparatus would lift up to 13 tons of cargo by pulling itself upward with a couple of tanklike treads that squeezed tightly onto the ribbon. Up to eight would ascend the ribbon at any one time, powered by lasers on the ground shining on the solar panels on the rising platforms. It would take about a week for one to reach geosynchronous orbit, 22,300 miles up, where a satellite circles the Earth in exactly one day, continuously hovering over the same spot on the Earth's surface. The first elevator would go up only. At the top, the platform would simply be added to the counterweight or be discarded into space.
Incidentally, this idea was used by Arthur C. Clarke in the Fountains of Paradise. Whether space elevators will become the second Clarke prediction to come true, after communication satellites, remains to be seen.
Instead of using magnetic levitation, the apparatus would lift up to 13 tons of cargo by pulling itself upward with a couple of tanklike treads that squeezed tightly onto the ribbon. Up to eight would ascend the ribbon at any one time, powered by lasers on the ground shining on the solar panels on the rising platforms. It would take about a week for one to reach geosynchronous orbit, 22,300 miles up, where a satellite circles the Earth in exactly one day, continuously hovering over the same spot on the Earth's surface. The first elevator would go up only. At the top, the platform would simply be added to the counterweight or be discarded into space.
Incidentally, this idea was used by Arthur C. Clarke in the Fountains of Paradise. Whether space elevators will become the second Clarke prediction to come true, after communication satellites, remains to be seen.
