Space Elevators

[Music] welcome to another video from explaining the futurecom this time I'm going to talk about space elevators these could transport people and cargo to and from orbit without using a rocket so let's go and delve more deeply into this rather wacky idea for over 50 years Rockets have been the only technology used to allow things and people to escape from planet earth however as far back as 1895 russian space pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky proposed the idea of getting into space by building a tower that would reach up to a celestial castle since that time many scientists and science fiction authors have developed the space elevator concept with the idea being to stretch a cable or tether from a ground station on the equator up to an orbital platform a carriage with an internal climbing mechanism would then travel up the cable to carry people and cargo into space almost certainly the carriage would need to receive power via laser or microwave transmission the platform would be positioned in a geostationary orbit about twenty-two thousand miles or 35,000 kilometers above the earth however the space elevators tether would have to extend far beyond to a counterweight that would keep it taut in a June 2000 report of a NASA Institute for advanced concepts researcher Bradley C Edwards estimated that the total length of the cable would need to be about 60,000 miles or 96 thousand kilometers building a space elevator would clearly be very hard indeed but so too was placing a human being on the moon 50 years ago benefits of a space elevator could also be very significant as access to space would be greatly improved in turn this could allow the construction of solar power satellites that could beam energy to the ground a space elevator could also allow human civilization to obtain new supplies of raw materials by mining the asteroids or the moon as I've discussed in previous videos the finite resources of the earth will not last forever constructing a space elevator may hence prove a critical stepping-stone for a long-term survival and evolution of our species one of the hardest challenges to overcome would be manufacturing a space elevated cable that will not collapse under its own weight a space elevator tether would also have to be corrosion resistant and capable of withstanding the extreme cold of the upper atmosphere not to mention impacts from micro meteorites and space debris until recently member 2 had existed with the properties required to make a space elevator tether however a cable manufactured from carbon nanotubes is now a theoretical possibility in fact in November 2018 Chinese scientists from Tsing how University patented and published details of a carbon nanotube fiber that they claimed could be used to make a space elevated cable another grand challenge will be constructing a suitable counterweight building one from materials taken from the earth would probably require tens of thousands of rocket launches so a more likely option would be to locate a suitable asteroid and to transport it to the required location potentially a carbon-rich asteroid may be selected they could also be mined for the materials required to manufacture the space elevators tether [Music] in addition to building an earth space elevator one day we may also construct a lunar elevator to provide access to the surface of the Moon this could improve the financial viability of Luna mining and what in some respects be easier to build as the moon's gravity is only about 17 percent of that of the earth this means that a lunar elevator could be constructed using existing materials to manufacture that cable for example a viable lunar elevator tether could be fashioned from a synthetic fibers demeanor or Xylon while the cable in an earth space elevator will be held taut primarily by the Earth's rotational acceleration for a lunar equivalent the moon's gravitational force would need to be counterbalanced by the earth tidal acceleration this means that a lunar elevated tether would have to extend from the lunar surface through to a platform under earth moon LeGrande l1 point about 56,000 kilometers from the moon and to a counterweight at a balance point between the moon and to the earth in the 2017 paper space elevator advocate TM Eubanks also suggested that the logical follow-up to the construction of earth and lunar elevators would be a Mars space elevator this he suggests that have its cable anchored to the Martian moon Phobos and would provide easier access to the surface of the Red Planet [Music] over the years several space agencies companies and individuals have promoted space elevator visions not least materials prepared for NASA between 2000 and 2003 developed the concept significantly while since 2003 a company called lyft port has been focusing on researching lunar space elevated technologies between 2005 and 2009 NASA also hosted several space elevated games to catalyze technology development similar competitions have also taken place in Japan and Europe in 2012 Japanese construction company uber yashi floated the ambition to build a space elevator by 2050 meanwhile in November 2017 with China Academy of launch vehicle technology revealed long-term plans that could include building a space elevator by 2045 in September 2018 scientists from Japan's Shizuku University even sent two cubes hearts to the International Space Station to be released into space to study the movement of a container along a cable in space if you want to learn more I've included a host of links in the video description [Music] well we ever traveled to and from Earth orbit and lunar orbit and even Martian orbit using a space elevator well I don't know however what I am certain of is that the human race needs to start thinking big and differently it would overcome the many environmental and resource and other challenges that lie ahead and space elevators and space elevator types sinking may well be part of that mix but now that's it for another video have enjoyed what you seen there please pass that like button if you haven't subscribed please subscribe and I hope to talk to you again very soon [Music] you

Channel: ExplainingTheFuture

Views: 41,279

Keywords: Space elevator, space elevators, lunar space elevator, lunar elevator, Mars space elevator, Mars elevator, China space elevator, NASA space elevator, space elevator games, Christopher Barnatt, Barnatt, space future, space futures, resources from space, lunar mining, mining the moon, asteroid mining, space based solar power, space solar power, future space travel

Id: 8kpe953wt2w

Length: 8min 17sec (497 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 16 2019