Nov. 20 — Constructing a vertical railroad stretching into space is no longer wistful fantasy carried in science fiction novels. Just ask the folks at HighLift Systems in Seattle. Selling the idea of a space elevator, however, takes a lot of ground-floor shoe leather and handshakes. FOR THE LAST few months, officials at HighLift Systems have been talking it up with an alphabet soup of government agencies, like NASA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Meanwhile, testing of prototype space elevator equipment is near at hand. And by far the strongest link that keeps the concept on the straight and narrow is worldwide work now under way by the carbon nanotube research community. Overall, progress is being made in attaining the lofty goal of operating a 21st-century elevator to space. WILL AND A WAY “We’re actually doing quite well,” explains Brad Edwards, co-founder of HighLift Systems, formed earlier this year. “It’s more of a will and a funding kind of thing,” he told Space.com. “Our travel schedule speaks the loudest,” added Michael Lane, president of the group and just back from meeting with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s chief technologist at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. “Things are moving.” Being sought by the upstart firm is about $40 million, more than half of which would be for space elevator engineering, design and testing. Around $13 million is earmarked for carbon nanotube composite research — the ultra-strong material that’s key to building an elevator to space. Venture capitalists and private investors have already committed several million dollars to the project, Lane said. “We have also received requests to relocate to several states including Nevada and New Mexico who are putting forth enticing packages. But no decision has been reached,” Edwards said. “Since we are obligated to work with the federal government on this program, part of our decision is based on how well each of the states can help us interface with critical parts of the federal government. We have also been receiving requests from Europe and Canada for various discussions including relocation that we are looking into, especially if federal funds don’t appear by the end of our current funding in January,” Edwards told Space.com. TOOL TIME FOR CELESTIAL MECHANICS Detailed design work on the space elevator concept has been made possible through NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts. For those needing a modest refresher course, a space elevator, in its simplest form, is a high-wire act for celestial mechanics. One end of the cable would be attached to an offshore sea platform. The cable stretches up through the sky and outward into space for 62,000 miles (100,000 kilometers). On the space end of the cable — a counterweight. Once in place, the competing forces of gravity at the lower end and outward centripetal acceleration at the farther end keep the cable under tension and stationary over a single position on Earth. The outstretched cable can then be ascended by mechanical means. If a robotic climber slowly tools up to the far end of the cable, then releases from the line, it would have sufficient energy to escape from Earth’s gravity well and zoom onward to the moon, Mars, Venus or asteroids. A working space elevator can haul up large fragile structures such as solar power satellites, habitats and payloads for the exploration and development of space. FROM VIALS TO MILES The material of choice for a space elevator is a super-strong carbon nanotube composite. There is success to report in making carbon nanotubes more than a laboratory curiosity. But extra work is needed to push carbon nanotubes from vials to miles. “The composite development is moving more quickly than expected, and we believe we will have impressive materials in the very near term,” Edwards said. “We have very little doubt now that the space elevator can be built technically.” Edwards said, however, that specific issues still remain, as well as finding funds to solve those issues. The challenge has now moved into the funding area. “It appears that there is private funding to support our carbon nanotube composite development. … We hope to acquire that funding in the very near future,” he said. In other space elevator news, a board of advisers for HighLift Systems has been formed. That advisory group is made of technical and business individuals, including heads of companies like T.Y. Lin, a world-class construction firm. Art Anderson Associates, experts in oceangoing architecture, has joined the team too. Leaders in space tethers and carbon nanotube composites are onboard the space elevator team, as are space hardware developers. GREASE THE SKIDS Funds needed for space elevator engineering, however, is more difficult to come by because of the time scale for financial return, Edwards said. One frustrating issue is gaining any serious funding at the government level. Federal money is often committed years ahead of time, he notes. Nevertheless, in talks with Washington lawmakers, optimism still runs high for both short and long-term funding, Edwards said. That money will be needed for further testing of carbon nanotube composite segments, and other experiments to show the viability of building a space elevator. In the offing is using a high-altitude balloon to show the ability of a prototype climber to ascend the heights shimmying up a tether. So too are evaluations of how carbon nanotube composites react to the space environment, including being peppered by space debris. “We have a lot of computer modeling simulations,” Edwards said. “We’re doing as much as we can to get real data,” Edwards said. © 2002 Space.com. All rights reserved. http://msnbc.com/news/837772.asp?0dm=T18MT#BODY
