200910242 1 What is a µSpace E levator¶ and is it possible? The space el evator was a concept first proposed back in 1895 by Russian rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky who became inspired by the construction of the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the science fiction writings of Jules Verne. He was self taught from the age of nine aftercontracting a serious illness that left him hard of hearing and is considered by many to be the father of theoretical astronautics (4). Yuri Artsutanov, best known as a pionee r in t his topic wrote in 1960 an article "V Kosmos na E lectrovoze (en. Into space with the help of an electric locomotive)", where he discussed the c oncept of the space elevator as an economic, safe and convenient way to a ccess orbit and facilitate space exploration (2). Arthur C. Clarke believed in his last years that such an elevator would be built once people stopped laughing.(3) Although we can be considered Astronauts in the eyes of NASA once you¶ve travelled higherthan 80 km; 50 miles a more substantial distance of 350 km; 220 miles is needed to achieve a stable orbit for any kind of spa cecraft. (1) Mankind¶s present method of reaching interplanetary space is to use enough energy to accelerate a vehicle to 11,000 m/s (39,600 km/h; 24,600 mph) (5). This is currently achieved using rocket power and a huge expense of resources. The shuttle used for space travel along with the rockets and fuel tanks ar e recovered and rebuilt before another launch is possible and the only present method to increase the number of launches possible in a given time is to have more than one space craft. The space elevator¶s principle is to place a satellite station in orbit and a land or sea based structure on Earth then linking the two permanently together via a solid structure or cable. A platform could then travel between Earth and space using far less energy than a shuttle with rockets, plus the potential number of journeys into space would be increased limited only by the time taken to travel up and back down the structure or cable. A space elevator could a llow for larger structures to be developed and built and potentially allow for further exploration of planets due to t he increase in productivity and reduction in used resources. The space elevator in principle appears to be the more log ical method of transportation to space than using a rocket, so why hasn¶t such a project been undertaken already?
