Space elevator: Tower of Babel?

Up, up and away!   (Circa 1370 AD)

When humans tried to kiss the sky the first time around, it didn’t work so well.  Neither did it seem to work for Hendrix himself.

Nevertheless, we’ve come a long way since the days of “Lingerie, Third Floor” type elevators.  So long, in fact, that we’re now planning an elevator into space…

Astronaut Chris Impey explains to NPR’s Terry Gross that this is not as far out as it seems.  You simply “string a cable up into space… to a geostationary point [the point at which the cable’s “orbital period” equals the rotation period of the heavenly body from which it was launched].”

Impey compares this to “an Indian rope trick” in which the spinning of the cable sends it “straight out away from you by the centrifugal force.”  If launched from Earth, the cable “rope” would have to be 100,000 kilometers long.  We don’t currently have “a material strong enough to make a cable that long suspended against [Earth’s] gravity.”

Our current technology, however, could make this work from the Moon’s surface.  Because the Moon has only one-sixth the Earth’s gravity, our current cable materials can withstand that lesser amount of opposing force.

Impey concludes:  …if you build a space elevator, you can get essentially anywhere in the solar system for the cost of almost no rocket fuel.  A free ride?  Hardly.  We don’t yet know the hidden costs.   

Resources

http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=405503895

Copyright June 28, 2015 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved