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- NASA already wants to build one
- NASA researchers are already working on it
- Inherency – Others Building Space Elevator Now
- Japanese companies are building one
- Japan isn’t the only one looking into it
Space Elevator NegInherency – NASA Space Elevator NowNASA is already looking into a space elevatorRobert Longley, 2012, “NASA Plans Elevators to Space,” http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa041702a.htm Open your imagination now. You hop into the elevator and hit the button for the 11,457,600th floor. Hope you dressed warmly, because when you hop out, you'll be hopping right into space. Science fiction? Not anymore, says NASA. Amid soaring costs of space shuttle flights, new security concerns, and repeated launch delays, NASA scientists continue to look for slower, yet simpler and reusable ways of getting satellites and into space. One of those ways may just be the space elevator. According to NASA, a space elevator would essentially be a long cable with one end attached to a point on the Earth's equator while the other end remains held by its own outward centripetal force some some 22,187 miles (35,787-kilometers) directly overhead in a geostationary orbit. Magnetically powered vehicles would climb the cable, serving as a mass transportation system for moving people, satellites and other payloads between the Earth and space. The space elevator is really a spin-off of an earlier NASA plan for lifting objects into orbit without rockets called Space Towers. NASA already wants to build oneRobert Longley, 2012, “NASA Plans Elevators to Space,” http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa041702a.htm To build a space elevator, NASA would first use the space shuttle to carry reels holding a thin inner-layer of cable into orbit. The cable would then be unrolled with the free end being snaked down from orbit and attached to an anchoring station located somewhere on the Earth's equator. To stabilize the upper-end of the cable, an artificial "asteroid" would be attached to act as a counterweight. With the initial inner cable in place, automated "climbers" would then begin adding additional strengthening layers of cable from the ground up. Total construction time is estimated by NASA at three to five years. For a cable strong enough to withstand the enormous forces involved, NASA pins its hopes on a newly developed "carbon nanotube" material shown in tests to be over 100 times stronger than steel. The billions of dollars needed to build the first space elevator would more than be recovered through both its commercial potential and downright costs savings, say NASA planners. NASA researchers are already working on itNASA, 9-7-2000, “Audacious and Outrageous: Space Elevators,” http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2000/ast07sep_1/ Does this sound like the Sci-Fi Channel or a chapter out of Arthur C. Clarke's, Fountains of Paradise? Well, it's not. It is a real possibility -- a "space elevator" -- that researchers are considering today as a far-out space transportation system for the next century. David Smitherman of NASA/Marshall's Advanced Projects Office has compiled plans for such an elevator that could turn science fiction into reality. His publication, Space Elevators: An Advanced Earth-Space Infrastructure for the New Millennium, is based on findings from a space infrastructure conference held at the Marshall Space Flight Center last year. The workshop included scientists and engineers from government and industry representing various fields such as structures, space tethers, materials, and Earth/space environments. "This is no longer science fiction," said Smitherman. "We came out of the workshop saying, 'We may very well be able to do this.'" Inherency – Others Building Space Elevator NowJapan will build a space elevator by 2050 nowEmily Butcher, 2-27-2012, “Space Elevator to be Operable by 2050,” Construction Digital, http://www.constructiondigital.com/innovations/space-elevators-to-be-operable-by-2050 Is the thrill of an African safari or scuba diving off the Great Barrier Reef failing to provide the novelty you crave from a dream vacation? As soon as 2050, according to Japanese construction company Obayashi Corp., a trendy vacation spot could be a spaceport offering a stellar view of Earth’s surface 60,000 miles below. Representatives of the Tokyo-based company spoke to Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper last Wednesday, describing their hopes of building an operational space elevator using carbon nanotubes. The statement came after the discovery that the material – strong and light enough to potentially construct the perilously long cable – could make the dream a reality. Japanese companies are building oneMike Wall, 2-23-2012, “This Japanese Company Is Building An Elevator To Space,” Business Insider, http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-02-23/home/31090119_1_space-elevators-quarters-and-laboratory-space-carbon-nanotubes People could be gliding up to space on high-tech elevators by 2050 if a Japanese construction company's ambitious plans come to fruition. Tokyo-based Obayashi Corp. wants to build an operational space elevator by the middle of the century, Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported Wednesday (Feb. 22). The device would carry passengers skyward at about 124 mph (200 kph), delivering them to a station 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth in a little more than a week. In Obayashi's vision, a cable would be stretched from a spaceport on Earth's surface up to an altitude of 60,000 miles (96,000 km), or about one-quarter of the distance between our planet and the moon. A counterweight at its end would help "anchor" the cable in space. Japan isn’t the only one looking into itMike Wall, 2-23-2012, “This Japanese Company Is Building An Elevator To Space,” Business Insider, http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-02-23/home/31090119_1_space-elevators-quarters-and-laboratory-space-carbon-nanotubes "At this moment, we cannot estimate the cost for the project," an Obayashi official said, according to Yomiuri Shimbun. "However, we'll try to make steady progress so that it won't end just up as simply a dream." Obayashi is not the only entity taking this dream seriously. For example, NASA researchers released a lengthy report more than a decade ago citing the potential of carbon nanotubes to make space elevators possible. And the agency has sponsored the Space Elevator Games, a contest to develop precursors to this longed-for transportation system. 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