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Space Elevator Construction
Three basic approaches for constructing a space elevator have been proposed: First, using in-space resources to manufacture the whole cable in space. Second, launching and deploying a first seed cable and successively reinforcing the seed cable by additional cables, transported by climbers. Third, spooling two cables down and then connecting the ends, forming a loop. Early construction concepts There are two approaches to constructing a space elevator. Either the cable is manufactured in space or it is launched into space and gradually reinforced by additional cables, transported by climbers into space. Manufacturing the cable in space could be done in principle by using an asteroid or Near-Earth object.Hein, A.M.Producing a Space Elevator Tether Using a NEO: A Preliminary Assessment International Astronautical Congress 2012, IAC-2012, Naples, Italy, 2012 One early plan involved lifting the entire mass of the elevator into geostationary orbit, and lowering one cable downwards t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Manufacturing
Space manufacturing is the production of tangible goods beyond Earth. Since most production capabilities are limited to low Earth orbit, the term in-orbit manufacturing is also frequently used. There are several rationales supporting in-space manufacturing: * The space environment, in particular the effects of microgravity and vacuum, enable the research of and production of goods that could otherwise not be manufactured on Earth. * The extraction and processing of raw materials from other astronomical bodies, also called In-Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) could enable more sustainable space exploration missions at reduced cost compared to launching all required resources from Earth. * Raw materials could be transported to low Earth orbit where they could be processed into goods that are shipped to Earth. By replacing terrestrial production on Earth, this seeks to preserve the Earth. * Raw materials of very high value, for example gold, silver, or platinum, could be transpo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Suspension Bridge
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridges, which lack vertical suspenders, have a long history in many mountainous parts of the world. Besides the bridge type most commonly called suspension bridges, covered in this article, there are other types of suspension bridges. The type covered here has cables suspended between towers, with vertical ''suspender cables'' that transfer the live and dead loads of the deck below, upon which traffic crosses. This arrangement allows the deck to be level or to arc upward for additional clearance. Like other suspension bridge types, this type often is constructed without the use of falsework. The suspension cables must be anchored at each end of the bridge, since any load applied to the bridge is transformed into a tension in these main cables. The main cables conti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Elevator Safety
There are risks associated with never-done-before technologies like the construction and operation of a space elevator. A space elevator would present a navigational hazard, both to aircraft and spacecraft. Aircraft could be dealt with by means of simple air-traffic control restrictions. Impacts by space objects such as meteoroids, satellites and micrometeorites pose a more difficult problem for construction and operation of a space elevator. Satellites If nothing were done, essentially all satellites with perigees below the top of the elevator would eventually collide with the elevator cable. Failure cascade For stability, it is not enough that other fibers be able to take over the load of a failed strand — the system must also survive the immediate, dynamical effects of fiber failure, which generates projectiles aimed at the cable itself. For example, if the cable has a working stress of and a Young's modulus of , its strain will be 0.05 and its stored elastic energy wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Elevators In Fiction
This is a list of occurrences of space elevators in fiction. Some depictions were made before the space elevator concept became fully established. Novels and fairy tales * Kris Longknife series by Mike Shepherd. Space elevators are ubiquitous across the known galaxy. *'' 2061: Odyssey Three'' (1987), novel by Arthur C. Clarke. The possibility of a space elevator is realised after a groundbreaking discovery that Jupiter's core (now in fragments around the orbit of Lucifer, the small sun formed by the implosion of Jupiter) had been a solid diamond; as the hardest substance in nature, suddenly available in vast quantities, it facilitates the construction of a solid elevator rather than the more common tether structure previously envisaged * '' 2312'' (2012), novel by Kim Stanley Robinson. Thirty-seven space elevators connect Earth's surface to orbit. * '' 3001: The Final Odyssey'' (1997), novel by Arthur C. Clarke. In this novel, a ring habitat now exists around the Earth that is co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Elevator Economics
Space elevator economics compares the cost of sending a payload into Earth orbit via a space elevator with the cost of doing so with alternatives, like rockets. Costs of current systems (rockets) The costs of using a well-tested system to launch payloads are high. The main cost comes from the components of the launch system that are not intended to be reused, which normally burn up in the atmosphere or are sent to graveyard orbits. Even when reusing components, there is often a high refurbishment cost. For geostationary transfer orbits, prices are as low as about US$11,300/kg for a Falcon Heavy or Falcon 9 launch. Costs of low Earth orbit launches are significantly less, but this is not the intended orbit for a space elevator. Proposed cost reductions Various adaptations of the conventional rocket design have been proposed to reduce the cost. Several are currently in development, like the SpaceX Starship. An aspirational price for this fully reusable launch vehicle is $10/kg, s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Non-rocket Spacelaunch
Non-rocket spacelaunch refers to theoretical concepts for launch into space where much of the speed and altitude needed to achieve orbit is provided by a propulsion technique that is not subject to the limits of the rocket equation. Although all space lauches to date have been rockets, a number of alternatives to rockets have been proposed. In some systems, such as a combination launch system, skyhook, rocket sled launch, rockoon, or air launch, a portion of the total delta-v may be provided, either directly or indirectly, by using rocket propulsion. Present-day launch costs are very high – $2,500 to $25,000 per kilogram from Earth to low Earth orbit (LEO). As a result, launch costs are a large percentage of the cost of all space endeavors. If launch can be made cheaper, the total cost of space missions will be reduced. Due to the exponential nature of the rocket equation, providing even a small amount of the velocity to LEO by other means has the potential of greatly red ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lunar Space Elevator
A lunar space elevator or lunar spacelift is a proposed transportation system for moving a mechanical climbing vehicle up and down a ribbon-shaped tethered cable that is set between the surface of the Moon "at the bottom" and a docking port suspended tens of thousands of kilometers above in space at the top. It is similar in concept to the better known Earth-based space elevator idea, but since the Moon's surface gravity is much lower than the Earth's, the engineering requirements for constructing a lunar elevator system can be met using materials and technology already available. For a lunar elevator, the cable or tether extends considerably farther out from the lunar surface into space than one that would be used in an Earth-based system. However, the main function of a space elevator system is the same in either case; both allow for a reusable, controlled means of transporting payloads of cargo, or possibly people, between a base station at the bottom of a gravity well and a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion and subsequent oil spill becomes the worst marine oil spill in history; Spectators watch a football match with their famous vuvuzelas during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which was held in South Africa; people entering the White House in Bishkek on 7 April during the Kyrgyz Revolution of 2010; the remains of Tu-154 after crash on April 10, 2010 that killed Polish president Lech Kaczyński; a child is treated for injuries following 2010 Haitian earthquake which killed an estimated 100,000 - 250,000 people., 300x300px, thumb rect 0 0 200 200 2010 Chile earthquake rect 200 0 400 200 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull rect 400 0 600 2 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Elevator
A space elevator, also referred to as a space bridge, star ladder, and orbital lift, is a proposed type of planet-to-space transportation system, often depicted in science fiction. The main component would be a cable (also called a tether) anchored to the surface and extending into space. The design would permit vehicles to travel up the cable from a planetary surface, such as the Earth's, directly into orbit, without the use of large rockets. An Earth-based space elevator could not feasibly be simply a tall tower supported from below, due to the immense weight - instead it would consist of a cable with one end attached to the surface near the equator and the other end attached to a counterweight in space beyond geostationary orbit (35,786 km altitude). The competing forces of gravity, which is stronger at the lower end, and the upward centrifugal force, which is stronger at the upper end, would result in the cable being held up, under tension, and stationary over a sing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Infrastructure
Human presence in space is about humanity in space, particularly about all anthropogenic presence in space and human activity in space, that is in outer space and in a broader sense also on any extraterrestrial astronomical body. Humans have been present in space either, in the common sense, through their direct presence and activity like human spaceflight, or through mediation of their presence and activity like with uncrewed spaceflight, making " telepresence" possible. Human presence in space, particularly through mediation, can take many physical forms from space debris, uncrewed spacecraft, artificial satellites, space observatories, crewed spacecraft, art in space, to human outposts in outer space such as space stations. While human presence in space, particularly its continuation and permanence can be a goal in itself, human presence can have a range of purposes and modes from space exploration, commercial use of space to space settlement or even colonization a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carbon Nanotube
A scanning tunneling microscopy image of a single-walled carbon nanotube Rotating single-walled zigzag carbon nanotube A carbon nanotube (CNT) is a tube made of carbon with diameters typically measured in nanometers. ''Single-wall carbon nanotubes'' (''SWCNTs'') are one of the allotropes of carbon, intermediate between fullerene cages and flat graphene, with diameters in the range of a nanometre. Although not made this way, single-wall carbon nanotubes can be idealized as cutouts from a two-dimensional hexagonal lattice of carbon atoms rolled up along one of the Bravais lattice vectors of the hexagonal lattice to form a hollow cylinder. In this construction, periodic boundary conditions are imposed over the length of this roll-up vector to yield a helical lattice of seamlessly bonded carbon atoms on the cylinder surface. ''Multi-wall carbon nanotubes'' (''MWCNTs'') consisting of nested single-wall carbon nanotubes weakly bound together by van der Waals interactions in a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Near-Earth Object
A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body whose orbit brings it into proximity with Earth. By convention, a Solar System body is a NEO if its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is less than 1.3 astronomical units (AU). If a NEO's orbit crosses the Earth's orbit, and the object is larger than across, it is considered a potentially hazardous object (PHO). Most known PHOs and NEOs are asteroids, but a small fraction are comets. There are over 30,503 known near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and over a hundred known short-period near-Earth comets (NECs). A number of solar-orbiting meteoroids were large enough to be tracked in space before striking the Earth. It is now widely accepted that collisions in the past have had a significant role in shaping the geological and biological history of the Earth. Asteroids as small as in diameter can cause significant damage to the local environment and human populations. Larger asteroids penetrate the atmosphere to the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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