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Elevators: the Final Frontier?

Previous: The Elevator Goes to the Movies

In recent years there has been speculation that a cable of enormously strong fibers (made of carbon nanotubes) attached to a satellite beyond geostationary orbit could be used for lifting into orbit, replacing rockets for that purpose. Such a “space elevator” was featured in the New York Times on September 23, 2003 (Northwestern users click here for full article), and indeed was used by author Arthur C. Clarke in his science fiction novel, Fountains of Paradise (1979).

However, as distinguished physicist Richard L. Garwin pointed out in a letter to the New York Times a few days later, even if such a device could be made, it would be of limited utility:

Climbing such a strand to the altitude of low-Earth orbit satellites, about 200 miles, would not help put a mass in orbit. ... It would need to gain a speed of almost 5 miles per second. Reaching altitude at zero speed is best done with a small rocket. And propulsion to orbital speed puts more than 50 percent of the rocket’s fuel into that of the satellite – an efficiency that’s hard to beat. ... [Use of rockets to put small masses into orbit] can be achieved at a far lower cost than investing in a space elevator that is of no use to low Earth orbit and is noncompetitive for geosynchronous altitudes ("Shooting for the Sky," New York Times, September 30, 2004, Section F, Page 4).

Perhaps for now we'll just have to make do with the earthbound elevators we've got...

Patent No. 287,033, for the Pneumatic Elevator. Granted to Joseph Lewis, Chicago. (Official Gazette, United States Patent Office, October 23, 1883).