First 'space elevator' — a 66,000-mile cable to the cosmos— closer than ever before as scientists make breakthrough
A nonprofit consortium believes a 66,000-mile graphene tether could make daily Mars launches routine — and the material might finally exist.
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A space elevator would be built 'about fifty years after everybody stops laughing.'”
A space elevator would be built 'about fifty years after everybody stops laughing.'
Clarke's quip frames the elevator's history as a journey from ridicule to legitimacy, setting the article's central tension.
In context
Stargazers have dreamed up ladders to space for well over a century with the idea popularized by famed British sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke in his 1979 novel “The Fountains of Paradise,” where the mega structures he envisioned were called “orbital towers.” Clarke — author of “2001: A Space Odyssey” — put in the effort to finely detail the real world engineering such a feat would require and famously remarked that a space elevator would be built “about fifty years after everybody stops laughing.” Swan likes to remind naysayers that in 1969, following the moon landing, the New York Times issued a formal apology for a decades-old editorial that mocked an engineer who suggested rockets would o…
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The colossal cable would be nearly invisible but reflective, like a mirror — ground-based spectators catching an occasional thin, long glint of reflected sunlight slicing down from heaven.
Swan makes the abstract engineering scale tangible by describing how the finished structure would appear to ordinary observers on the ground.
In context
Each strand of tether would actually be a single molecule—one atom thick, one meter wide and 100,000 kilometers (62,000 miles) long—stretching from an “Earthport” on the surface, which will have to be located at the equator, up to an “apex anchor” spaceport well beyond GEO. A single tether, or leg, is 20,000 stacked sheets of this molecule, as the ISEC sees it. The colossal cable would be nearly invisible, said Swan, but reflective, like a mirror, with ground-based spectators catching an occasional thin, long glint of reflected sunlight slicing down from heaven.
The colossal cable would be nearly invisible said Swan, but reflective, like a mirror with — ground-based spectators catching an occasional thin, long glint of reflected sunlight slicing down from heaven.
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Rockets must be 85–95 percent propellant to escape Earth's gravity. Cargo is typically just 2–4 percent of liftoff mass. Engineers call this the 'tyranny' of the rocket equation.
The rocket equation's inefficiency establishes why an alternative to conventional launch is worth pursuing at all.
In context
From Moon villages to Martian cities to asteroid mining, space enthusiasts have long felt rockets are never going to fully cut it. The “tyranny” of the rocket equation, as one NASA researcher put it in a 2012 paper, is that in order to reach the speed needed to escape Earth’s gravity, rockets must be 85–95 percent propellant. Cargo is typically just 2–4 percent of liftoff mass. The ISEC has put forth a cheeky $15 billion price tag to build the world’s first fully robotic space elevator. They say it would be a steal, if feasible. The recent Artemis launch that sent humans back to the moon for the first time since 1972 clocked in at $4 billion. But the entire ongoing, multi-decade Artemis prog…
“tyranny” of the rocket equation, as one NASA researcher put it in a 2012 paper, is that in order to reach the speed needed to escape Earth’s gravity, Rockets must be 85–95 percent propellant to escape Earth's gravity. Cargo is typically just 2–4 percent of liftoff mass. Engineers call this the 'tyranny' of the rocket equation.
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It looks like we found the material. Technology doesn't go on a linear line — every once in a while somebody makes a discovery and capabilities jump from linear to really huge.
Swan declares that a long-sought material barrier has finally been crossed, marking the breakthrough the headline promises.
In context
…pencil lead atoms, long thought to be an ideal candidate for such a project, the researchers said. Polycrystalline refers to a patchwork process that makes the molecule more scalable. “It looks like we found the material,” said Swan. “We’re a heck of a lot further along than we were six months ago. Technology doesn’t go on a linear line, it grows. “Every once in a while, somebody makes a discovery and all of a sudden the capabilities go from linear to really huge jumps in capability. That’s what’s happening in our tether material arena. “[Polycrystalline graphene] is so flippin’ strong. They’re taking it and making it into bulletproof vests, one layer can stop a .38 bullet from a pistol.”…
It looks like we found the material. said Swan. “We’re a heck of a lot further along than we were six months ago. Technology doesn't go on a linear line it grows. — every once in a while somebody makes a discovery and all of a sudden the capabilities go jump from linear to really huge.
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By the time a project like that starts generating cash flow for investors it could be two and a half, three decades. They're looking for a return — hopefully while they're still alive.
Papazian names the investor timeline problem as the core obstacle standing between a viable concept and actual funding.
In context
The nonprofit claims a space elevator will be able to deliver 30,000 metric tons of cargo into space per year from the get-go. That would be a staggering annual haul, more than the combined weight of every object ever sent into space since 1957. However, it remains a hard sell to most. “By the time a project like that starts generating cash flow for investors it could be two and a half, three decades,” Papazian, author of “The Space Value of Money: Rethinking Finance Beyond Risk and Time” told The Post. “[Investors] are looking for a return … hopefully while they’re still alive,” he added, adding public money is also subject to ever-changing political whims and debt constraints.
By the time a project like that starts generating cash flow for investors it could be two and a half, three decades. Papazian, author of “The Space Value of Money: Rethinking Finance Beyond Risk and Time” told The Post. “[Investors] are They're looking for a return — hopefully while they're still alive.
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