THE SPACE ELEVATOR
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Transcript of THE SPACE ELEVATOR
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Indian Institute of TechnologyHyderabad
THE SPACE ELEVATOR
Aaditya Sapkal(ES12B1016)
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The Components
The Ribbon
The Anchors
The Climbers
The Power
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The Ribbon: Design
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The Ribbon: ConstructionInitial production takes
place on earthAligned nanotubes are
epoxyed into sheets, which are then combined (reinforced)
Climbers have a similar system on-board to build tether
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Why Carbon Nanotubes?Property Single Walled
NanotubesMetal wires
Tensile Strength 45 billion pascals High strength steel alloys break at about 2 billon pascal
Resilience Can be bent at large angles and restraightened without damage
Metals and carbon fibers fracture at grain boundaries
Temperature stability
Stable upto 2800 degrees in vacuum, 750 degrees in air
Metal wire in microchips melt at 600 to 1000 degrees C
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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
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The Climbers
Initial ~200 climbers used to build nano-ribbonLater used as launch vehicles for payloads from
20,000- 1,000,000 kg, at velocities up to 200km/hrClimbers powered by electron laser & photovoltaic
cells, with power requirements of 1.4-120MW
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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)
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Deployment
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Major Hurdles
Ribbon ConstructionAtmospheric:
oLightningoHigh WindsoAtomic Oxygen
Orbital: oMeteors oLow orbit object
Ribbon Breakage
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Problems: Solutions:
Sufficient Ribbons
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
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
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Threat: Solution:
Atmospheric Oxygen 60-100km
Extremely corrosive, will etch ribbon epoxy and possibly nanotubes
Coat ribbon with Gold or Aluminum which have resisted etching in these atmospheric conditions,(NASA’s Long Duration Exposure Facility
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Low Orbit Objects 500-1700kmThreat: 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
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LightningThreat: 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
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High WindsThreat: 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