OrbitalHub

When I read The Fountains of Paradise a few years ago, I thought the space elevator was an interesting concept but that there was little chance of seeing it materialize like we saw the geostationary satellites become a reality after being depicted in a science fiction story by the same author, Arthur C. Clarke. And not just because some famous scientist said so, but because anchoring to the Earth a geostationary satellite with a cable measuring some 100,000 km is quite a technological challenge.

The first scientist to propose building a structure to reach space was Konstantin Tsiolkovski, who envisioned an orbital tower in 1895. In 1960, another Russian scientist, Yuri Artsutanov, developed this concept into an article called Into Space with the Help of an Electric Locomotive, which was published in Komsomolskaya Pravda. Artsutanov proposed linking of geosynchronous satellites to the ground using cables. It is interesting to mention here that Arthur C. Clarke and Yuri Artsutanov actually met years after the Fountains of Paradise was published.

Ok, so it is just science fiction, you might say. Well, not quite. There was a study ordered by NASA under the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, which had as its object the investigation of all aspects of the construction and operation of a space elevator. The study was funded by NASA for more than two years and it was titled The Space Elevator.

A book was also published by the authors of the study, Bradley C. Edwards and Eric A. Westling. The book has the same title as the study. I found the book easy to read and really entertaining. Even if it becomes very technical in some parts, it is accessible to readers who do not have a technical background.

The book starts by presenting the main components of the design (the ribbon, the spacecraft, the climber, and the anchor), and the challenges that the space and the Earth’s atmosphere pose to the space elevator during the deployment phase and during the normal life of the program: lightings, meteors, and LEO objects, just to mention a few.

Being a feasibility study, the economic considerations had to be part of it. There are budget estimates that would draw the attention of potential investors, and even a realistic schedule for the development of not just one, but up to four ribbons.

While the space elevator is obviously a very cheap solution for deploying payloads in Earth’s orbit, it can also be used for opening Mars to human exploration and colonization. An Earth space elevator uploading materials in orbit working together with a space elevator downloading them on Mars would make possible the continuous flow of materials and colonists.

The later chapters of the book present the possible implications of the space elevator on the development of space travel and on the future of our technological society.

As the authors acknowledge, the book is not an exhaustive study of all aspects to be considered in the designing and building of the space elevator, but a good beginning. The proposed budget of 6 to 10 billion dollars for the project is not excessive considering the potential return of investment and that access to space is essential for the future development of our society.

Published in 2003, the book is a classic. I strongly recommend it.

In a follow up to The Space Elevator, Bradley C. Edwards and Philip Ragan wrote Leaving the Planet by Space Elevator, which was published in 2006.

For more information about the space elevator, including the 2008 Space Elevator Challenge and the Elevator: 2010 challenge, check out The Spaceward Foundation’s site.