Clipped from: YouTube - Space elevator

Clipped from: Space elevator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A space elevator is a proposed structure designed to transport material from a celestial body's surface into space. Many variants have been proposed, all of which involve traveling along a fixed structure instead of using rocket powered space launch. The concept most often refers to a structure that reaches from the surface of the Earth on or near the Equator to geostationary orbit (GSO) and a counter-mass beyond.

A space elevator would consist of a cable anchored to the Earth's surface, reaching into space. By attaching a counterweight at the end (or by further extending the cable for the same purpose), inertia ensures that the cable remains stretched taut, countering the gravitational pull on the lower sections, thus allowing the elevator to remain in geostationary orbit. Once beyond the gravitational midpoint, carriages would be accelerated further by the planet's rotation. (Diagram not to scale.)

One concept for the space elevator has it tethered to a mobile seagoing platform.

Carbon nanotubes would be a highly useful material for creating a space elevator

A seagoing anchor station would incidentally act as a deep-water seaport.

As the car climbs, the elevator takes on a 1 degree lean, due to the top of the elevator traveling faster than the bottom around the Earth (Coriolis force). This diagram is not to scale.

Clipped from: YouTube - The Space Elevator

Clipped from: The Spaceward Foundation

The Spaceward Foundation: The Future is Closer than it Appears!

Read all about it at:

www.SpaceElevatorGames.org

Meanwhile...

What's a Space Elevator? See here.
What's going to happen this Fall? See here.
Who is competing? See here.
How close to reality is the Space Elevator? See here.
Movies and pictures from past competitions? Image gallery and Video Jukebox here.
Ted's Excellent Space Elevator Blog - read back to learn about the world of the Space Elevator.
New! Spaceward Publications and the Space Elevator Library. See here.