general se presentation

Slides composed by Brad Edwards.Prior to giving this presentation, please read the book The Space Elevator available on Amazon.. The Space Elevator: ‘Thought Experiment’, or Key to the

Slides composed by Brad Edwards.

Prior to giving this presentation, please read the book

The Space Elevator (available on Amazon) Reading and

understanding this book will help an individual

give a good, credible presentation.

The Space Elevator

… building our future

Space Elevator Basics

The SE in Literature

• Artsutanov, Y 1960 V Kosmos na

Elektrovoze, Komsomolskaya Pravda,

(contents described in Lvov 1967 Science

158:946)

• Isaacs, J.D., Vine, A.C., Bradner, H., and

Bachus, G.E 1966 Satellite Elongation

into a true ‘Sky-Hook’ Science 151:682

• Pearson, J 1975 The Orbital tower: a

spacecraft launcher using the Earth’s

rotational energy Acta Astronautica

2:785

• Clarke, A.C 1979 The Space Elevator:

‘Thought Experiment’, or Key to the

Universe Adv Earth Oriented Appl

Science Techn 1:39

The Space Elevator in

Science Fiction

From SciFi to NASA

• Capture an asteroid and bring into Earth orbit

• Mine the asteroid for carbon and extrude 10m diameter cable

• Asteroid becomes counterweight

• Maglev transport system

• Tall tower base

• Large system

• 300 years to never

From Smitherman, 1999

Proposed System: Overview

 First elevator: 20 ton capacity (13 ton payload)

 Constructed with existing

or near-term technology

schedule (15 years)

 Operating costs of US$250/kg to any Earth orbit, moon, Mars,

Venus, Asteroids

Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs)

5km continuous 1% CNT composite fiber

 Carbon nanotubes: measured at 200 GPa (54xKevlar)

– Sufficient to build the elevator

 Mitsui(Japan): 120 ton/yr CNT production, US$100/kg

– Sufficient to build the first elevator

 CNT composite fibers: 3-5% CNTs, 3 GPa, 5 km length

– Not strong enough yet but a viable plan is in

place to get there (Carbon Designs, Inc.)

Deployment Overview

Ribbon Design

 The final ribbon is

one-meter wide and composed of parallel high-strength fibers

 Interconnects maintain structure and allow the ribbon to survive small impacts

 Initial, low-strength

ribbon segments have been built and tested

 An MPD electric propulsion moves the spacecraft up to high Earth orbit

 Four 20-ton components are launched on conventional rockets and assembled

 Climbers built with current satellite technology

 Drive system built with

poorly with moon and sun, active damping with anchor

in Earth orbit (LDEF)

and 800 km (LDEF)

issue

cable, above 2600 km send up an empty climber to retrieve the first

location selection

probability-based life

hours on average to avoid debris down to 1 cm

indicate minimal problem

minimal due to mass and distribution

Recommend construction of a second system for redundancy: US$3B

 Safe access to space - no explosive propellants

or dangerous launch or re-entry forces

 Easily expandable to large systems or multiple

systems

 Easily implemented at many solar system

locations

n power for use on Earth

nd full development of the moon, Mars and Earth orbit

high performance systems

Global Attention

DARPA, FCC, FAA, and satellite insurance companies Invited talks at Harvard/Smithsonian CfA, APL, GSFC, Berkeley, National Space Society, SPIE, Space and Robotics 2002, ISU, etc

 Held the three Space Elevator Conferences

One session at Space and Robotics 2002,

two sessions at the IAC meeting in Oct.,

2004, and Space Exploration 2005 are

focusing solely on our work

 ESA, Japan, Canada and Australia have

expressed interests in being involved

 Reported positively in New York Times,

Washington Post, Discover, Wired, Seattle

Times, Space.com, Canadian National Post,

Ad Astra, Science News, Maxim, Esquire, etc

 Globally over 1000 media spots including live

interviews on CNN, Fox News, and BBC

 Technical conferences continuing

 Greater public awareness

 Increased financial support being sought

 The space elevator is a revolutionary Earth-to-space transportation system that will enable space exploration

 Design, deployment and operational scenarios for the first space elevator have been put together Potential challenges have been laid out and solutions developed

 Development of the space elevator requires an investment in materials and engineering but is achievable in the near future with a reasonable

investment and development plan

Summary