do we need Space elevators?
A space elevator will be mankind’s first planetary-scale structure with a remarkable concept of “transformational infrastructure: As the Space Elevator will lift massive cargo and deliver it daily, inexpensively, safely, routinely and in an environmentally neutral approach — access to space using the Space Elevator will be a transformational event. Routine use of a permanent transportation infrastructure enables new missions and will change how we dream about the future. Each of three remarkable missions [Mars colony, Lunar Village, and Space Solar Power] have a primary demand of raising mass against the Earth’s gravity. The beauty of the Space Elevator is that it raises massive cargo with electricity [hence “the Green Road to Space”] and then releases it at remarkable velocities. One example explains this conundrum well and points out the transformational aspects of space elevators:
Traditional launch to Mars for an 8-month trip has the satellite departing the Earth’s sphere of influence at roughly 4 km/sec after expending 13.1 km/sec of energy to beat gravity. This, added to the velocity of the Earth, enables flights to Mars - the opportunity (window) to launch (conjunction of planet alignments) is every 26 months. When looking at a release from a Space Elevator Apex Anchor (at 100,000 km altitude) the Earth’s gravity field is weak; therefore, the release is 7.76 km/sec and travel time can be as short as 61 days with daily departures. [see Interplanetary study entitled “Space Elevators are the Transportation Story of the 21st Century” www.isec.org/studies] Indeed, Space Elevators are the transformational element in the movement off-planet and to enable massive satellites at GEO (space solar power). Its scope is as huge as its promise.
Should we build it, and if so, why? During the past several years, people have offered answers to this question.
In General
Why space elevators? To save humanity.
Art Dula, 2014
Space Lawyer, Patent Attorney, Trustee of the Heinlein PRIZE Trust
Space Elevators will be THE crucial needed springboard for human evolution during this XXI Century. Futurist analysis of our evolution demonstrates that Elevators are the main needed technology to achieve a constructive future for the XXI century on its overall extent.
Valentín Elías Pineda
Futurist writer, Technology and Futurism
Barcelona, Spain
But what if there was a way to put people and things into orbit for something close to the cost of airfare? Would that change the world? You bet it would! As we shall see, when our tale unfolds, that kind of cost change would affect the world in ways we can hardly imagine. It would be at least as great a change as the computer revolution we are now living through and probably as great a difference as the granddaddy of all shifts in human productivity and wealth, the industrial revolution itself. It would be, in a phrase, “Out of this World.”
Brad Edwards
from B.C. Edwards and E.A. westling, “The Space Elevator”, published by B.C. Edwards, 2002.
The development of the space elevator will give us hope for the future with a vision - The space elevator gives us the road to limitless opportunities while opening up the solar system - The human spirit needs no restrictions: Once the Apollo 8 picture of the Earthrise from lunar orbit was broadcast, the world was sensitized to our limitations and realized that we were on a fragile planet. We must soar beyond our boundaries and expand into the solar system and beyond.
Cathy W. Swan
ISEC member, 2014
The rationale for space elevators is that it is required to enable movement out into the solar system beyond low Earth orbit. The logic is as follows:
· Space elevators enable low cost access to GEO and beyond [$100 per kg]
· With cheap access to GEO, commercial industry rushes to GEO and stimulates a gold rush into space.
· With a gold rush to GEO and beyond, Solar power satellites provide cheap energy to people on the Earth.
· Earth businesses then expand and technologies are developed.
· With the gold rush into space, space mineral resource mining is enabled to include trips to the surface of the Moon and Mars as well as near Earth asteroids.
· With mining on the Lunar surface, lunar space elevators become essential.
· With the in-situ resources found at these sites, building explodes on the surfaces.
· With buildings on the surface of asteroids, at the Earth Moon L-1 location, the surface of the Moon and finally, Mars, people start emigrating off planet.
· With people and commerce off planet, the Earth-Moon-Mars eco-system expands exponentially towards large colonies supporting humanity’s boundless future.
The expansion of humans off-planet was discussed recently by Dr. Steven Hawking as the necessary step for humanity, requiring space elevators [added by me].
Peter Swan, 2015
President of ISEC
Our world is growing everyday with increasing population the demand for resources too is increasing at an exponential rate, simply speaking our planets resources will not be sufficient to help us sustain in future. Maybe non-renewable sources of can help us in the fields of energy but what will we do for land (required for living, agriculture, education, etc.), materials for building and many other things. We need to go beyond the limits of sky to planets, asteroids different galaxies to meet the next generation’s needs. For those we will need to increase our rocket launches which will later cause more air pollution and environmental issues. We need another mode of transport which is Faster, Cheaper, Safer and Environmentally Friendly and Space Elevator is the answer. Example:
City A has resource “X” which is required by city B very badly but the road connecting them is a very bad position so it takes a lot of time to transport the material “X”. Now someone has built an express highway between the cities due to which the time taken to transport has decreased, the frequency of shipments moving has increased and many other advantages. In our case Space Elevator acts as the express highway between planets and other celestial bodies.
Souvik Mukherjee
high school student from India attending 2019 International space development conference
Why? Because the Space Elevator is a Catalyst for Change!
Michael “Fitzer” Fitzgerald
ISEC Chief Architect
The value and benefit of developing a space elevator infrastructure is even greater than earlier estimates, as it will change our approach to operations in space. Low cost, safe, reliable and flexible delivery of payloads to Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) and beyond could create an “off-planet” environment filled with opportunities ranging from commercial space systems to exploration of the solar system. Daily initiation of 20 metric ton climbers, safe delivery to GEO and beyond, and a projected price of $500 per kg, will open up the solar system and lead to many new commercial ventures. In addition, the radical change from chemical rockets and the low risk approach of climbing vertically at reasonable speeds will greatly reduce two major hazards that are dominant today: 1) the environmentally friendly, electrically driven, motors will have almost no hazardous material polluting the atmosphere, and 2) this delivery technique does not create orbital debris, especially in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
Another major benefit will be in supporting human exploration. The first ten years will enable massive movement of equipment to GEO and beyond. Human exploration can leverage this tremendous capability by assembling large spacecraft at GEO with massive fuel loads delivered at $500/kg. After ten years of operations, humans should also be riding to GEO.
The benefits for humanity on Earth can be phenomenal. The ability to inexpensively deliver large quantities to orbit will enable capabilities stimulating an Earth renaissance. The facility to provide power to any location on the surface [space solar power satellites] will enable development across the world. Several examples are that Africa could skip the 20th century of wires while the outback of countries like India or China would not have to burn coal and the Amazon region could retain more of its rain forests. In addition, the increase in communications and Earth resource satellites will remake the emergency warning systems of the world. Some intractable problems on the Earth’s surface would also have solutions, such as the safe and secure delivery – and thus disposal - of nuclear waste to solar orbit.
Peter Swan, David Raitt, Cathy Swan, “Skip” Penny and John Knapman
from International Academy of Astronautics Study Report, Space Elevators: An Assessment of the Technological Feasibility and the Way Forward, Virginia Edition Publishing Company, Science Deck (2013)
The main reason for space elevators has to be getting our of our gravity well cheaply and safely. The predicted elevator launch costs are two orders of magnitude cheaper than rocketry and will make our expansion into and exploitation of the solar system so much easier. The estimated construction cost of $20 billion looks a lot, but compare it to the airlines, which annually carry $6 trillion goods. The elevator construction cost is about the same as one day's air freight.
Peter Debney, 2014
Chartered engineer and software specialist
Space elevators would bring the space closer to everybody, since the cost (in economic and natural resources) would be considerably smaller than actual space trips. It would be one more step in the conquest of space by the human race.
Jorge del Val Santos, 2014
Graduate in Engineering Technology and Services of Telecommunications (ETSIT),
studying Degree in Physics (UNED)
I am really amazed that this question even needs to be asked. The answer is so very obvious. The human race has multiplied beyond nature’s capacity to sustain its continuation on this planet. The homo sapiens will not go extinct but the struggle for survival will engender continual warfare and strife. The old myths will get a new lease on division of the human society and it may eventually blow itself up. Happily we humans have wanderlust built into our genetic makeup. We must travel and fan out in the cosmos.
Rockets alone will not be able to meet the challenge. Too expensive. Space elevator with its nominal cost of lifting 1 lb of material for just 63 cents is the answer. We can build mammoth spaceships in space at almost no cost and access to space itself will be very safe and cheap. We can build the elevators on the moon and other planets. Its impact on interplanetary commerce and human colonization can only be imagined.
One side benefit for us (electric) power hungry earthlings will be almost free electricity by building solar space power stations in synch orbits and send the collected solar radiation down to earth in microwave frequency and then convert it to power frequency. There is no cloud in the outer space so power outages will be a thing of the past! This will also eliminate electric bills!! There is no excuse for NASA now not to start the space elevator project right away.
Ziaul Hasan, 2015
It is hoped to lower launch cost which can enable a host of other projects including Solar powered Power to beam to Earth and supply all cheap clean energy needs on Earth, orbital hotels, and cities, low G hospitals, mining asteroids, our Moon, Mars and its moons, off Earth mining, production, manufacturing, construction, agriculture, industry, and in general life there and beyond. Eventually it will give us the stars.
James Brown, 2015
retired Engineer/Technician
In Particular
Strengths:
The Space Elevator has tremendous inherent strengths leveraging permanent infrastructures around the globe. This includes: daily, routine, 24/7/365/50 yr. bridge like operations, massive loads, environmentally friendly, revolutionarily inexpensive access to space, no consumption of fuel to gain altitude, safe, no shake-rattle-roll during trip, no space debris creation, few volumetric restrictions, one-week trip to GEO, and - from Apex Anchor - daily releases towards Mars (no 26 month wait for a launch window), rapid transit to Mars (as fast as 61 days with hundreds of days quicker than rockets), and massive movement of cargo to support interplanetary missions. In addition, the establishment of Space Elevators enable the following missions: Space Solar Power (eliminating 100s of coal burning plants), release of high level nuclear waste towards the Sun, potential sun shade of Earth, and with small rockets assembled at the Apex Anchor which can reach any place in the solar system with any size (mass) scientific payloads.
The bottom line for Space Elevators and their Galactic Harbours is that humanity’s hopes and needs to expand beyond the limited resources and environment of our own planet can be realized. Space Elevators are the enabling infrastructure ensuring humanity’s growth within and beyond our solar system.
Pete Swan, June 2020
Advantages of a space elevator over rockets
At this point, it might be useful to review what the advantages of a hypothetical space elevator are over conventional rockets (IMHO of course):
• The space elevator is massively scalable. If/when a space elevator becomes possible, there is absolutely no reason why you can’t build one (or more than one) that can send hundreds of tons of payload from earth to space every day. It’s a transportation infrastructure, like the trans-continental railroad.
• Riding on a space elevator is akin to riding on a high-speed train. You do not have to worry about cushioning cargo against high-g forces and the “shake, rattle and roll” that always accompanies rocket launches.
• The space elevator will pollute less. I don’t know the numbers here and don’t know how much pollution (however you want to define that term) a rocket generates; but, the space elevator’s “pollution” should be essentially zero.
• The space elevator should be safer. Rockets still have a 1-3% failure rate and it’s difficult to see how that can be significantly improved. A space elevator should have a failure rate close to 0%.
It should be cheaper to send cargo to space via a space elevator rather than via rockets. This alleged advantage is, IMHO, more difficult to prove. It’s always a great talking point; “Space Elevators will be able to send payload into space much cheaper than rockets can;” but, I’ve yet to see the numbers on this (despite my best efforts). It’s hoped that this is true, but it’s not a “slam dunk”…”
Ted Semon
former ISEC President
Space Elevator Blog, February 27, 2015.
Free flights to EM L-1
Recently, there has been a flurry of articles emphasizing the importance of the Earth Moon Lagrangian location #1 (EML-1). They go into multiple calculations to show that the location of EML-1 is optimal for transportation infrastructures going to or coming from the Earth [surface, LEO, GEO], lunar surface, or low lunar orbit. The energy needed from any low orbit around the Earth is essentially the same when the destination is the EML-1. In addition, from there the path to any location on the Moon is easy and low in energy cost. The conclusions that are coming about with so many studies is that the EML-1 location should be used as a “refueling” location ensuring easy access to fuels on the surface of the Moon or asteroids. Instead of the Apollo approach (rendezvous in Low Lunar Orbit), the access to any location on the Moon is direct from EML-1. This simplifies the planning and enables the construction of a space habitat and a 7-11 like commercial operations center selling fuel to space travellers.
Now the question becomes one of “WHY” space elevators. The answer is simple. The ride up to the EML-1 is all-electric with no significant fuel required [of course small corrections and rendezvous needs are there]. Payloads would leave the surface of the Earth, travel to the Apex Anchor, be released once a day with the proper velocity to end up at the EML-1 location with no need for extra fuel. This would then enable three aspects not being discussed by the current Ecosphere proponents.
1. Inexpensive access to EML-1 [cost of space elevator travel + free toss]
2. Refuel at EML-1, enabling more payloads to be launched from the huge gravity well of the Earth as the full capability of the space elevator climber could be used for mission equipment, not fuel.
3. Very little fuel would be required to reverse the trip – use Lunar fuel to start towards the Earth, rendezvous with Apex Anchor [probably some fuel required], then ride for free [with respect to fuel] back to the surface of the Earth.
The bottom line is the execution of a space elevator development program will open up so many businesses and flight profiles not even conceived of at this time.