Education
Technological Beanstalk: Space Elevators as a New Way to the Sky and Beyond
NATS1880: Life Beyond Earth / research paper
January 2007
Abstract: In its most basic conceptual form, the oft and relatively newly proposed “space elevator” is exactly how it sounds. It is, more or less, an elevator that reaches into space, plain and simple. Its primary goal is to provide a safer, faster, and more economical form of transportation of both goods and persons into orbit and beyond. This is best accomplished, unlike with traditional modes of achieving orbital or sub-orbital flight, by not using rocket propulsion. Objects are brought into space from a base station on the ground (or very close to it) along a tether, which is connected to a counterweight somewhere in geostationary orbit. Although it sounds simple, the idea is, in fact, more than one hundred years in the making and has behind it far more scientific considerations than this paper will be able to fully outline.
Download the paper (spacer_elevator.pdf, 8 pages, 257kb)