Space Elevator: A Revolution in Space Travel or Science Fiction Dream?
SPACE tourists could be lifted 22,000 miles above Earth – at the touch of an elevator button. The bonkers $100 billion giant space elevator project could start hoisting people to Mars by 2050, says its Japanese designers.
Giant Space Elevator Project by 2050
“Instead of taking six to eight months to reach Mars, scientists have estimated a space elevator could get us there in three to four months or even as quickly as 40 days,” reported Business Insider. The idea has been described as “kooky,” technically challenging, and risky given that its tether would have to be under enough tension to be unaffected by extreme weather events, warned a scientist. Obayashi Corporation, the firm behind iconic buildings such as the 2,080-foot high Tokyo Skytree tower, has proposed building the “technically feasible” space elevator. It would “bridge the gap between Earth and space via a cable, allowing people to travel to and from space as easily as if they were riding a train,” the firm said. “The concept has been deemed feasible from a construction standpoint, and it is now in the process of actually being developed.”
Latest Developments in Space Elevator Construction
Obayashi is currently “engaged in research and development, rough design, partnership building, and promotion,” said its tech expert, Yoji Ishikawa. “We need partnerships, we need different industries; of course, raising funds is very essential,” he added. The idea is to tether the elevator to an Earth port – the elevator’s point of arrival and departure, said Obayashi in 2014. This structure would “float on the sea at the equator, while a terminal will be placed in a geostationary orbit about 22,000 miles above Earth,” the firm has proposed. The Earth port would be accessed by an undersea tunnel.
The Earth Port and Facility Arrangement
“The journey into space begins at the Earth Port. The port will function as a facility for anchoring the cable of the space elevator to the Earth and adjusting the tension of the cable,” said Obayashi. “At the same time, it will also be used as a base for transporting people and cargo during the construction of the Geostationary Orbit Station (the terminal in geostationary orbit). The port will eventually serve as a point of arrival and departure to transport us into space and back. With this, traveling from Earth to space will become a reality for ordinary people.”
Space Elevator and Zero Gravity Environment
Obayashi said that a colossal space solar power system could be installed near a geostationary orbit station (satellite) to transmit large volumes of electrical energy back to Earth. “Moreover, since the inside of the geostationary orbit station will have a weightless environment, visitors will be able to enjoy moving in zero gravity,” the firm said. A counterweight will balance the weight at the tip of a 59,000-mile cable extending beyond the geostationary orbit to ensure the station hovers above the same point on our planet 24/7. “At the same time, it will serve as the Solar System exploration gate, sending spacecraft out to extract resources from planets and other parts of the solar system, such as Jupiter and asteroids.”
Feasibility and Challenges of Space Elevator
The firm said in 2014 that the space elevator is planned to be built by the year 2050. “It is composed of a 59,000-mile carbon nanotube cable, a 400-meter diameter floating Earth port, and a 12,500-ton counter-weight,” it added. “Other facilities include Martian/lunar gravity centers, a low Earth orbit gate, a geostationary Earth orbit station, a Mars gate, and a Solar System exploration gate.” It estimated that it would take about two decades to construct the super-strong 20-ton cable, one end of which would be fixed to the Earth’s surface. This cable would have to be “reinforced 510 times by climbers up to 7,000 tons.”
Future Prospects and Challenges in Space Elevator Technology
“The current technology levels are not yet sufficient to realize the concept, but our plan is realistic, and is a stepping stone toward the construction of the space elevator,” it said. “It’s been sort of a kooky idea,” Christian Johnson told Business Insider. He published a report on space elevators last year in the peer-reviewed Journal of Science Policy & Governance, that pointed out that it could provide a cheaper alternative to rockets. “The space elevator is a hypothetical concept for placing satellites in orbit around Earth that would result in dramatic cost savings over traditional rocket launches,” he said in his findings. “[It] would work by placing a counterweight in space that is tethered to the Earth’s surface and held in place by the centrifugal force of the Earth’s rotation.
Wrapping Up the Space Elevator Concept
He also described how it would function. “A passenger wishing to go into space, instead of riding in a rocket, can simply enter a ‘climber’ – a vehicle that attaches to the tether and climbs up it – to ride up to the altitude desired,” he said. Johnson, an associate information scientist with the research-based RAND Corporation, pointed out the technical challenges, including the impact of severe weather. “Large storms can carry debris at high speed, which risk cutting – if not snapping – the tether,” he warned. “Lightning poses another risk: a direct lightning strike on the tether could very possibly destroy it.”
Conclusion on Space Elevator Prospects and Challenges
The idea of a space elevator is nothing new. It was proposed by Russian space pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1895. And in 2019, a team of researchers revealed a concept called Spaceline, a type of space elevator to link Earth and the Moon. The scientists at Columbia University and Cambridge University published their concept in the preprint server ArXiv.