THE SPACE ELEVATOR

Erande Shubham
Dnyaneshwar
(T121150830)
What is a Space Elevator?
Rope attached to the Earth near the equator
which extends directly into space and is
attached to a small counterweight in
geostationary orbit
Will be able to transfer materials and
eventually humans into space for much
cheaper than it costs now
 The Components
The Ribbon or Tether

The Anchors

The Climbers

Counterweight

The Power
The Ribbon: Design
 The Ribbon: Construction
Initial production takes
place on earth
Aligned nanotubes are
epoxyed into
sheets, which are then
combined (reinforced)
Climbers have a similar
system on-board to build
tether
Why Carbon Nanotubes?
Property Single Walled Metal wires
Nanotubes
Tensile Strength 45 billion Pascal's High strength
steel alloys break
at about 2 billon
Pascal
Resilience Can be bent at Metals and
large angles and carbon fibers
restraightened fracture at grain
without damage boundaries
Temperature Stable up to Metal wire in
stability 2800 degrees in microchips melt
vacuum, 750 at 600 to 1000
degrees in air degrees C
The Anchors

The space anchor will consist of the spent

launch vehicle
The Earth anchor will consist of a mobile sea
platform 1500 miles from the Galapagos
islands
The Climbers

Initial ~200 climbers used to build nano-ribbon

Later used as launch vehicles for payloads from 20,000-
1,000,000 kg, at velocities up to 200km/hr
Climbers powered by electron laser & photovoltaic cells,
with power requirements of 1.4-120MW
Its sufficient to travel 36,000 km long away from the
earth.
 Counterweight
Captured asteroid
Space station
above
geostationary orbit
The Power
Free-electron lasers
used to deliver power
Adaptive Optics on
Hobby-Eberly
telescope used to
focus Earth-based
beams, (25cm spot @
1,000km altitude)
Reduced power
delivered at high
altitudes
compensated by
reduced gravitational
force on climber,
(~0.1g)
 Major Hurdles
Ribbon Construction
Atmospheric:
o Radiation
o High Winds
o Atomic Corrosion

Orbital:
o Meteors
o Low orbit object
Ribbon Breakage
Sufficient Ribbons
Problems:
Nanotubes must be defect
free and straight
The epoxy must be strong
yet flexible, burn up at a
several hundred Kelvin, and
cure relatively quickly
The length of the finished
cable is 91,000km, and
nanotubes are cm in length
Large scale behavior of
nanotubes unknown
Solutions:
Nanotubes are grown
aligned, and defects
can be controlled in
current production
methods, (spark gap)
The ribbon can be
produced in small
length bundles and
then connected
Atmospheric Corrosion 60-100km
Threat: Solution:
Extremely corrosive, Coat ribbon with Gold or Aluminum
will etch ribbon epoxy which have resisted etching in these
atmospheric conditions,(NASAs
and possibly Long Duration Exposure Facility
nanotubes
 Low Orbit Objects 500-1700km
Threat:
108,000 (>1cm)
objects with enough
velocity to sever or
critically damage
tether. Strikes could
occur ~every 14
hours
Solution:
Tracking systems for
objects >10cm
already in place, sea
platform will move
tether to avoid
Tracking systems for
1-10cm objects
coming on-line
Radiation
Threat:
Ribbon has lower
resistivity than
surrounding air,
lighting will prefer
this path.
Solutions:
Platform lies in a
region of very low
lightning activity
Platform is
mobile, and can
move tether out
of the way of
incoming storms
High Winds
Threat:
32m/s wind
velocity will
induce enough
drag to destroy
tether
Solution:
Winds at platform
location
consistently
below critical
velocity
Width of tether
will be adjusted
to minimize wind
loading
Pricing
Component Cost Estimate

Launch Cost $1.02 B

Cable Production $390 M
Spacecraft $507 M
Climbers $367 M
Power Laser $1.5 B
Anchor Station $120 M
Tracking Facility $500 M
Other $430 M
Contingency (30%) $1.44 B
Total $6.2 B
Conclusion
The future of space travel
Would set us on the path towards
expanding our space exploration to places
might never reach relying solely on rockets
Philip Ragan, co-author of the book
"Leaving the Planet by Space Elevator",
states that "The first country to deploy a
space elevator will have a 95 percent cost
advantage and could potentially control all
space activities."