By Drog, Section News Posted on Wed Nov 20, 2002 at 05:47:22 AM PST
Space.com is running this article about the current progress being made towards actually building a space elevator. For those unfamiliar with this longtime sci-fi concept, a space elevator is a cable stretching from the Earth's surface (likely an offshore sea platform) along to the equator to a counterweight beyond geosynchronous orbit. A robotic climber could then slowly scale the cable into orbit, without the need for propulsion. What brings this much closer to reality is the recent advancements in the creation of super-strong carbon nanotube composites.
The people at HighLift Systems are busy pounding the pavement, talking to various government agencies and private firms, looking for anyone to give them $40 million. More than half of that is needed for engineering, design and testing. $13 million is needed for more carbon nanotube composite research--in particular, how to create miles of it. Getting the funding has proven difficult, however, at the government level where money is often committed years ahead of time.
So far, it's mainly been computer simulations, but soon, HighLift Systems will be testing a prototype climber that will shimmy up a tether to a high-altitude balloon. Also required are real experiments to evaluate how carbon nanotube composites react to the space environment, including being peppered by space debris.
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