Space elevator : Part 1
I've just found out about the Space elevator 2010 . I am assuming that people interested in Space travel remember the Ansari X-prize. That was a fantastic competition for many years and it was won in brilliant fashion by a team led by one of the Great Engineers of our time, Burt Rutan. I refer off course to Space ship one.
The Space elevator essentially involves stretching a cable from The Earth into Space. Then sending vehicles into Space by causing them to climb the Cable till they attain what I would call an orbital height.
To be candid, before the current official interest, science fiction has been using Space elevators as a concept, A useful example can be found in Alastair Reynolds novel Chasm City. After I read the novel , I started thinking in detail about the practicalities of actually building a Space elevator. There where many issues.
Bearing in Mind that My technical education an training is restricted to a degree in Mechanical Engineering and have had no access to modern Astronautics information, here are some of the things I considered.
FACTOR 1
Current Launch vehicles are focused on Driving their payload to massive velocity and great distance from the surface within a very short time for good reason. They need the velocity to fall around the Earth Successfully without falling into the Earth. The Height above Earth counts towards the velocity required to maintain orbit, and the Higher the vehicle , the lee the atmospheric resistance til it becomes almost non existent. The Sky elevator either has to impart the required velocity to the payload or the Payload has to have engines to do this itself, in which case what would be the point.
part 2 follows
I've just found out about the Space elevator 2010 . I am assuming that people interested in Space travel remember the Ansari X-prize. That was a fantastic competition for many years and it was won in brilliant fashion by a team led by one of the Great Engineers of our time, Burt Rutan. I refer off course to Space ship one.
The Space elevator essentially involves stretching a cable from The Earth into Space. Then sending vehicles into Space by causing them to climb the Cable till they attain what I would call an orbital height.
To be candid, before the current official interest, science fiction has been using Space elevators as a concept, A useful example can be found in Alastair Reynolds novel Chasm City. After I read the novel , I started thinking in detail about the practicalities of actually building a Space elevator. There where many issues.
Bearing in Mind that My technical education an training is restricted to a degree in Mechanical Engineering and have had no access to modern Astronautics information, here are some of the things I considered.
FACTOR 1
Current Launch vehicles are focused on Driving their payload to massive velocity and great distance from the surface within a very short time for good reason. They need the velocity to fall around the Earth Successfully without falling into the Earth. The Height above Earth counts towards the velocity required to maintain orbit, and the Higher the vehicle , the lee the atmospheric resistance til it becomes almost non existent. The Sky elevator either has to impart the required velocity to the payload or the Payload has to have engines to do this itself, in which case what would be the point.
part 2 follows