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Tether Challenge
Elevator:2010 was an inducement prize contest with the purpose of developing space elevator and space elevator-related technologies. Elevator:2010 organized annual competitions for climbers, ribbons and power-beaming systems, and was operated by a partnership between Spaceward Foundation and the NASA Centennial Challenges. History On March 23, 2005 NASA's Centennial Challenges program announced a partnership with the Spaceward Foundation regarding Elevator:2010, to raise the amounts of monetary prizes and to get more teams involved in the competitions. The partnership was not renewed after its initial 5-year term. There were two (out of an intended seven) competitions of the NASA Centennial Challenges which fell under the Elevator:2010 banner: The Tether Challenge and the Beam Power Challenge. There were also the two original competitions. Tether Challenge This competition presented the challenge of constructing super-strong tethers, a crucial component of a space ele ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elevator2010
An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They are typically powered by electric motors that drive traction cables and counterweight systems such as a hoist, although some pump hydraulic fluid to raise a cylindrical piston like a jack. In agriculture and manufacturing, an elevator is any type of conveyor device used to lift materials in a continuous stream into bins or silos. Several types exist, such as the chain and bucket elevator, grain auger screw conveyor using the principle of Archimedes' screw, or the chain and paddles or forks of hay elevators. Languages other than English, such as Japanese, may refer to elevators by loanwords based on either ''elevator'' or ''lift''. Due to wheelchair access laws, elevators are often a legal requirement in new multistory buildings, especially ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Launch Loop
A launch loop, or Lofstrom loop, is a proposed system for launching objects into orbit using a moving cable-like system situated inside a sheath attached to the Earth at two ends and suspended above the atmosphere in the middle. The design concept was published by Keith Lofstrom and describes an active structure maglev cable transport system that would be around 2,000 km (1,240 mi) long and maintained at an altitude of up to 80 km (50 mi). A launch loop would be held up at this altitude by the momentum of a belt that circulates around the structure. This circulation, in effect, transfers the weight of the structure onto a pair of magnetic bearings, one at each end, which support it. Launch loops are intended to achieve non-rocket spacelaunch of vehicles weighing 5 metric tons by electromagnetically accelerating them so that they are projected into Earth orbit or even beyond. This would be achieved by the flat part of the cable which forms an acceleration ... [...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] |
Tether Propulsion
Space tethers are long cables which can be used for propulsion, momentum exchange, stabilization and attitude control, or maintaining the relative positions of the components of a large dispersed satellite/spacecraft sensor system. Depending on the mission objectives and altitude, spaceflight using this form of spacecraft propulsion is theorized to be significantly less expensive than spaceflight using rocket engines. Main techniques Tether satellites might be used for various purposes, including research into tether propulsion, tidal stabilization and orbital plasma dynamics. Five main techniques for employing space tethers are in development: ;Electrodynamic tethers Electrodynamic tethers are primarily used for propulsion. These are conducting tethers that carry a current that can generate either thrust or drag from a planetary magnetic field, in much the same way as an electric motor does. ;Momentum exchange tethers These can be either rotating tethers, or non-rotating ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Gun
{{disambiguation ...
Space Gun may refer to: * Space gun, a method of launching an object into space * ''Space Gun'' (album), a 2018 album by Guided by Voices * ''Space Gun'' (video game), a 1990 arcade game * Ljutic Space Gun, a 12 gauge single-shot shotgun See also * Hand-Held Maneuvering Unit, or maneuvering gun or zip gun, a device used in spacewalks * Raygun, a science-fiction directed-energy weapon * TP-82 Cosmonaut survival pistol, carried by cosmonauts on space missions * Space warfare and space weapons Space weapons are weapons used in space warfare. They include weapons that can attack space systems in orbit (i.e. anti-satellite weapons), attack targets on the earth from space or disable missiles travelling through space. In the course of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Fountain
A space fountain is a proposed form of an extremely tall tower extending into space. As known materials cannot support a static tower with this height, a space fountain has to be an active structure: A stream of pellets is accelerated upwards from a ground station. At the top it is deflected downwards. The necessary force for this deflection supports the station at the top and payloads going up the structure. A spacecraft could launch from the top without having to deal with the atmosphere. This could reduce the cost of placing payloads into orbit. Its largest downside is that the tower will re-enter the atmosphere if the accelerator fails and the stream stops. This risk could be reduced by several redundant streams. The lower part of a pellet stream has to be in a vacuum tube to avoid excessive drag in the atmosphere. Similar to the top station, this tube can be supported by its own system of transferring momentum from a space-bound stream to a surface-bound stream. If the tub ... [...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] |
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] |
Skyhook (structure)
A skyhook is a proposed momentum exchange tether that aims to reduce the cost of placing payloads into low Earth orbit. A heavy space station, orbiting station is connected to a cable which extends down towards the upper atmosphere. Payloads, which are much lighter than the station, are hooked to the end of the cable as it passes, and are then flung into orbit by rotation of the cable around the center of mass. The station can then be reboosted to its original altitude by electromagnetic propulsion, rocket propulsion, or by deorbiting another object with the same kinetic energy as transferred to the payload. A skyhook differs from a geostationary orbit space elevator in that a skyhook would be much shorter and would not come in contact with the surface of the Earth. A skyhook would require a suborbital launch vehicle to reach its lower end, while a space elevator would not. History Different synchronous non-rotating orbiting skyhook concepts and versions have been proposed, star ... [...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] |
