Scientist Sees Space Elevator in 15 Years

[BERIGAN]

Scientist Sees Space Elevator in 15 Years

51 minutes ago Add Science - AP to My Yahoo!

By CARL HARTMAN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) wants to return to the moon and put a man on Mars. But scientist Bradley C. Edwards has an idea that's really out of this world: an elevator that climbs 62,000 miles into space.

AP Photo

Slideshow: Scientist Envisions Construction of Space Elevator

Scientists Envision 62,000 Mile Elevator

(AP Video)

Edwards thinks an initial version could be operating in 15 years, a year earlier than Bush's 2020 timetable for a return to the moon. He pegs the cost at $10 billion, a pittance compared with other space endeavors.

"It's not new physics — nothing new has to be discovered, nothing new has to be invented from scratch," he says. "If there are delays in budget or delays in whatever, it could stretch, but 15 years is a realistic estimate for when we could have one up."

Edwards is not just some guy with an idea. He's head of the space elevator project at the Institute for Scientific Research in Fairmont, W.Va. NASA (news - web sites) already has given it more than $500,000 to study the idea, and Congress has earmarked $2.5 million more.

"A lot of people at NASA are excited about the idea," said Robert Casanova, director of the NASA Institute of Advanced Concepts in Atlanta.

Edwards believes a space elevator offers a cheaper, safer form of space travel that eventually could be used to carry explorers to the planets.

Edwards' elevator would climb on a cable made of nanotubes — tiny bundles of carbon atoms many times stronger than steel. The cable would be about three feet wide and thinner than a piece of paper, but capable of supporting a payload up to 13 tons.

The cable would be attached to a platform on the equator, off the Pacific coast of South America where winds are calm, weather is good and commercial airplane flights are few. The platform would be mobile so the cable could be moved to get out of the path of orbiting satellites.

David Brin, a science-fiction writer who formerly taught physics at San Diego State University, believes the concept is solid but doubts such an elevator could be operating by 2019.

"I have no doubt that our great-grandchildren will routinely use space elevators," he said. "But it will take another generation to gather the technologies needed."

Edwards' institute is holding a third annual conference on space elevators in Washington starting Monday. A keynote speaker at the three-day meeting will be John Mankins, NASA's manager of human and robotics technology. Organizers say it will discuss technical challenges and solutions and the economic feasibility of the elevator proposal.

The space elevator is not a new idea. A Russian scientist, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, envisioned it a century ago. And Arthur C. Clarke's novel "The Foundations of Paradise," published in 1979, talks of a space elevator 24,000 miles high, and permanent colonies on the moon, Mercury and Mars.

The difference now, Edwards said, is "we have a material that we can use to actually build it."

He envisions launching sections of cable into space on rockets. A "climber" — his version of an elevator car — would then be attached to the cable and used to add more lengths of cable until eventually it stretches down to the Earth. A counterweight would be attached to the end in space.

Edwards likens the design to "spinning a ball on a string around your head." The string is the cable and the ball on the end is a counterweight. The Earth's rotation would keep the cable taut.

The elevator would be powered by photo cells that convert light into electricity. A laser attached to the platform could be aimed at the elevator to deliver the light, Edwards said.

Edwards said he probably needs about two more years of development on the carbon nanotubes to obtain the strength needed. After that, he believes work on the project can begin.

"The major obstacle is probably just politics or funding and those two are the same thing," he said. "The technical, I don't think that's really an issue anymore."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=...tor_3&printer=1

[DTMX]

I wonder how much weed went into coming up with this concept?

Simple mathematics: Bong + Matrix DVD = Space Elevator.

Edited June 25, 2004 by DTMX

[RDK]

Actually, Clarke makes a solid case for it working in his book. Damn, has it been 25 years already?

[RDK]

The biggest problem that I can see is having to listen to that damn Muzak for six hours...

[Jazzmoose]

This is strange...I saw this same article about six months ago. I guess it's a slow news day.

[BERIGAN]

This is strange...I saw this same article about six months ago. I guess it's a slow news day.

Probably just an acid flashback, or flashforward?

[BERIGAN]

I wonder how much weed went into coming up with this concept?

Simple mathematics: Bong + Matrix DVD = Space Elevator.

[tooter]

I heard an item on the radio the other day about combining nanotechnology with biotechnology and coming up with a substance which can coat laptops and will supply elelctircity - far lighter an more efficient than current solar cells - photovoltaic or whatever it's called. So perhaps the power for the space elevator will be a more realistic prospect before too long.

Carbon 60 is the stuff - buckyballs, utilising the shapes that make up a soccer ball, for the cable.

There must be an easier way of getting into space than Spaceship One the other day.