I dont know much about how strong this solar wind is and all, but how about negatively charging the solar sails so that they repel from the protons in the 'winds'. Surely this could create more drive than the force of light? :P
WE can use a solar sail to lift stuff into space, maybe use hydrogen balloons to help with lift and support for the tether. Have a fleet of solar sail ships running a circuit lifting stuff into space all over the planet. Once all the system is in place it would be essentially free to operate, fully powered by solar energy.
Cosmos 1 was a project by Cosmos Studios and The Planetary Society to test a solar sail in space. Unfortunately, a rocket failure prevented it from reaching its intended orbit. But, it was tried. And they hope to explore this again in the near future. Google "solar sail" + "Cosmos 1"
The space elevator is a crazy idea - no doubt - just like stringing a telegraph cable between the old and new worlds was when proposed in 1840. Crazy until the first 2,300 nm cable was laid as a single piece in 1866.
To quote Arthur C. Clarke - "When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."
I want the space elevator because it makes everything else easier.
Dr. Brin has a few facts wrong about the space elevator.
1. It's not impossbly wide at the top. It is tapered but thickest right at GEO where everything below pulls down against everything above pulling up.
2. It isn't incredibly massive. The weight of a tether capable of lifting 20 tons is 1,000 tons. A 40 ton pilot ribbon is launched. The rest is lifted in a bootstrapping process. The 500 ton counterweight is mostly the ~270 climbers that lifted the remaing ribbon into place.
Regarding an SE on Mars, Dr. Brin is correct that the loads are much less. In fact, we could make the Martian SE out of Kevlar.
As to the moons and the winds, the ideal site for the base station of the Martian SE is the peak of Olympus Mons which is far enough north of the equator that the tether would drape in a parabolic arc clear of both moons orbits. This would also put the tether above most of the winds and sandstorms.
Bottom line - if we can create the tether material we can build the SE in ten years. If not - not. Yes, the tether will be massive (1,000 metric tons) but only 40 tons is launched. The rest is built by adding more material to the deployed pilot ribbon. See The Space Elevator by Brad Edwards and Eric Westling for details. Given that we can prove, or disprove the tether material for a tiny fraction of the 10B$ construction costs and having an elevator makes everything else possible, we must try.
I think a space elevator on Mars would be impossible due to the Martian moons of Phobos and Deimos interfering in their path. Even if that was not a big deal, there are the global hurricanes to contend with.
However I do think that having one upon either Luna (Earth's Moon) or Phobos (asteroid Moon) would be ideal spots (especially the latter).
I dont know much about how strong this solar wind is and all, but how about negatively charging the solar sails so that they repel from the protons in the 'winds'. Surely this could create more drive than the force of light? :P
TTHEmre 1 year ago
WE can use a solar sail to lift stuff into space, maybe use hydrogen balloons to help with lift and support for the tether. Have a fleet of solar sail ships running a circuit lifting stuff into space all over the planet. Once all the system is in place it would be essentially free to operate, fully powered by solar energy.
JettBrennan 1 year ago
Cosmos 1 was a project by Cosmos Studios and The Planetary Society to test a solar sail in space. Unfortunately, a rocket failure prevented it from reaching its intended orbit. But, it was tried. And they hope to explore this again in the near future. Google "solar sail" + "Cosmos 1"
Kipple 1 year ago
The space elevator is a crazy idea - no doubt - just like stringing a telegraph cable between the old and new worlds was when proposed in 1840. Crazy until the first 2,300 nm cable was laid as a single piece in 1866.
To quote Arthur C. Clarke - "When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."
I want the space elevator because it makes everything else easier.
vemcg 1 year ago
Dr. Brin has a few facts wrong about the space elevator.
1. It's not impossbly wide at the top. It is tapered but thickest right at GEO where everything below pulls down against everything above pulling up.
2. It isn't incredibly massive. The weight of a tether capable of lifting 20 tons is 1,000 tons. A 40 ton pilot ribbon is launched. The rest is lifted in a bootstrapping process. The 500 ton counterweight is mostly the ~270 climbers that lifted the remaing ribbon into place.
vemcg 1 year ago
His last sentence is basically the maxim of hard sf.
Jacnas 1 year ago
Regarding an SE on Mars, Dr. Brin is correct that the loads are much less. In fact, we could make the Martian SE out of Kevlar.
As to the moons and the winds, the ideal site for the base station of the Martian SE is the peak of Olympus Mons which is far enough north of the equator that the tether would drape in a parabolic arc clear of both moons orbits. This would also put the tether above most of the winds and sandstorms.
vemcg 1 year ago
Bottom line - if we can create the tether material we can build the SE in ten years. If not - not. Yes, the tether will be massive (1,000 metric tons) but only 40 tons is launched. The rest is built by adding more material to the deployed pilot ribbon. See The Space Elevator by Brad Edwards and Eric Westling for details. Given that we can prove, or disprove the tether material for a tiny fraction of the 10B$ construction costs and having an elevator makes everything else possible, we must try.
vemcg 1 year ago
I think a space elevator on Mars would be impossible due to the Martian moons of Phobos and Deimos interfering in their path. Even if that was not a big deal, there are the global hurricanes to contend with.
However I do think that having one upon either Luna (Earth's Moon) or Phobos (asteroid Moon) would be ideal spots (especially the latter).
darnellclayton 1 year ago
@darnellclayton The atmosphere is so thin on Mars, I doubt a small breeze from a weak "hurricane" would have much of an effect.
wesnile006 1 year ago