WEBVTT - The Great Space Elevator 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:04.720 Welcome to Stuff from the Science Lab from how stuff 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:16.200 works dot com. Hey guys, welcome to the podcast. This 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:18.000 is Alice Noderwell at the science that are at how 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:20.760 stuff works dot com. And this is Robert Lambs, science 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:23.799 writer and how stuff works dot Com. Today's topic of 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:28.480 space elevators reminds me of the children's classic Charlie in 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:32.479 the Greek Class Elevator, which I understand that you never read, Robert, Well, no, 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:34.120 but I saw the movie and don't they have the 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:36.479 elevator at the end of the movie, right, right, So 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:40.080 there's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, you know, Johnny Depp 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:43.760 and all that stuff, but then there's no, not Johnny Depp, 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:48.880 Gene Wilder. That's that's Charlie in the Chocolate fact Well right, right, yeah, yeah, okay, 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:51.519 point taken. And then the sequel is Charlie and the 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:55.360 Greek Class Elevator. Right. So when you open the opening 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:57.360 scene of Charlie and the Great Class Elevator, I think 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:02.240 it was called a Wonk evator in the movie. Okay, okay, Well, 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:06.440 so this this mega structure, the elevator is floating in 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:09.240 the sky and we see um, Charlie bucket and Willy 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:12.760 Wonka and all the various grandparents and even Charlie's parents 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:15.280 are all crowded into this elevator. And this is what 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:17.759 I was thinking of when we were preparing today's topic 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:22.759 for the Space Elevator, because the space Elevator is not 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:25.720 all that fanciful and idea like, it actually makes a 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:29.600 lot of sense and is something that we will probably 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:32.760 see in the decades ahead, we hope to see. You know, 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:34.920 I got really excited about this topic when we were 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:38.919 researching it. I'm not necessarily a space junkie. I'm very 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:42.560 excited about the different projects we're pursuing or not pursuing 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:45.280 as the case maybe uh and seems to be more 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:48.360 in the case these days. But um, the Space Elevator 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:50.120 really got me fired up, just because, yeah, it does 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:52.640 seem kind of doable. So let's give you a little 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.480 history on the space Elevator. Um, we have the idea 0:01:55.920 --> 0:02:00.240 from one Russian gentleman Urie aren't suiting of excuse your 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:02.920 if we messed up your last name, And he came 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:05.360 up with this in nineteen sixty according to the Space 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:08.600 Word Foundation, and the Space Ward Foundation is going to 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:10.920 come up if you do any research into space elevators 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:14.160 and it's just a nonprofit organization that's dedicated to space 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:16.919 elevators for the space science, technology, all that good stuff. 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:22.280 Just a just a grassroots nonprofit interested in building an 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:26.400 elevator into out of space. So you can go to 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:29.680 space elevator dot com and read RS nine paper titled 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:33.400 to the Cosmos by Electric Train. It was published in Pravda, 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:35.920 the old Soviet union newspaper, and this is what kills me. 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:38.600 It was published as a Sunday supplement for the kids, 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:40.079 as far as I understand it, and it has this 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:42.560 kind of cool, fun kid graphics. Well in a way, 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:44.320 it's kind of sad though, because you think back and 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:46.440 it's like, oh, at a time when kids were interested 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:49.320 in science except for your kids listening, of course. So 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:51.120 Here he was a pretty smart guy, and he wasn't 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:53.799 really satisfied with rockets as a means for getting to space. 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:57.040 So Here's in which is reasonable because rockets are it's 0:02:57.080 --> 0:02:59.600 like whatever you're sending into space, it's like strapping it 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.359 on the end of an explosion, you know, right, and 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:05.959 then there's a whole huge expenditure of fuel and you're 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:08.760 missing up the atmosphere. You have to protect passengers from 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:11.560 high acceleration. All this kid stuff. But let's read you 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:15.280 an excerpt. Oh, yes, yes, Robert has volunteered to do 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:18.680 this in his best Russian accent. Yes, Robert, feel free 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:21.000 to abbreviate the quote I got a little overzealous with 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:24.640 old Gary. All Right, here we go. Preparation for the 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:28.120 cosmic launching of a contemporary rocket requires not one day, 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:31.200 but more than one month. Yes, of course, these are 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:34.520 just the first steps. None is sounding a little like Dracula, 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.000 so I'm gonna stop and just continue in a normal voice. 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:39.520 The first steps man is taking beyond the limits of 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:42.200 his own planet. Still in the future, the construction of 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:45.400 rockets will not change in principle, and even in the future, 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:47.560 the first stage of the of the flight of a 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:50.560 cosmic liner will be accompanied by the furious effort of 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:54.080 straining engines, by the immense expenditure of fuel by protecting 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:57.120 passengers from high acceleration. Right, so, all sorts of crazy stuff. 0:03:57.320 --> 0:03:59.920 Because Grandma's gonna want to go into space, two can't. 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:02.920 Ema wants to go into space, and and so Uri 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:05.400 winds up saying flight into the cosmos with the help 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:07.640 of a rocket will never be like an outing on 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:10.440 a boat or a trip on a tram. Yeah, and 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:13.120 then he wonders, is this the only method for cosmic flights? 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:16.240 And thus the space elevator thinks to your right. And 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:18.440 the fact most thing about it too is that it's 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:21.200 it's such a kind of like common sense sense answered. 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:23.359 Like you can imagine the first guy that brought it 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:26.320 up was just like sent out of the room, you know, 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:28.800 because he's like, hey, guys, I know these rockets are great, 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:32.200 but can we just build like an elevator that goes 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:34.719 from space. It's it's like when I was on vacation, 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:37.039 you know, you you get on at the lobby and 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:40.560 then you just push GEO for GIO synchronous orbit. Yeah. 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:42.480 Like when I was on vacation, we went to see 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:46.760 this hell fire pass thing and h in Thailand, okay, 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:49.640 and like there was some some some very old people 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:51.359 in God blessing from em brave enough to come on 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:53.400 the trip. But they were like, is there going to 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:55.960 be an elevator so we can ride back from the bottom. 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:57.680 You know, It's like it's a ridiculous question asking it 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:00.880 seems like a ridiculous question to ask of of space travel. 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.680 But it makes a lot of sense. Yeah, So for 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:06.680 a while they were thought of as kind of ridiculous, 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:09.120 and they'd really just existed in old Yury's head and 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.160 the realm of sci five as you guys my network, 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:16.160 Yeah you've wrote about it and Fountains of Paradise. But 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:19.719 two things moved space elevators firmly out of fantasy and 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:22.080 into the realm of possibility. And those two things were, 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.560 according to space Ward, the discovery of carbon nanotubes in 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:30.800 nineteen and their early nineteen nineties and uh Bradley Edwards 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:33.520 engineering research in two thousand one. So those were two 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:37.240 of the things that really made space elevators something that 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:40.240 we can hope for. We had the we had an 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:42.520 idea about how the engineering would work. It's not like 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:45.160 just going out and piling up cement blocks and two 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:49.000 by four until you reach orbit. I think part of 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.920 the problem for me when we were researching this podcast 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:54.440 was I just think of an elevator as a structure 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:57.600 being encased within a building. So that's not the case 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:00.440 with the space elevator. Yeah, It's more are like a 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:04.719 vehicle that climbs a super strong tether for miles and 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:07.440 miles and miles. Yeah, let's give some details on the 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:10.280 tether because that's pretty important part of the whole Space 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:13.200 elevator construction. Yeah. The thing that really that I had 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:14.880 to look up to really put it in perspective for 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:17.920 for me, UM is that the sheer distance we're talking here, 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:22.440 all right. Currently, the tallest structure in the world is 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:27.719 the Burgee Kalafa in Dubai. And you've probably seen pictures 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:29.880 of this super tall building. I was at the Seventh 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:32.720 Star Hotel. It might be it's yeah, it probably is. 0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:36.400 It's in Dubai. It's probably eight um. But all right, 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:40.279 this structure is two thousand, seven hundred and seventeen feet tall. 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:43.839 That's roughly half a mile structure. Yes, the Dubai structure, 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:49.200 all right. Geo centrationis altitude is a hundred and twenty 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:55.400 four miles, Okay, okay, So you'd have to stack um 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:59.760 two hundred and um of those Dubai super hotels on 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:02.000 top of each other just to reach um, you know, 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:05.560 satellite territory. But that's not even the distance of the 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:09.359 Space elevator. The space elevator, according to uh to some predictions, 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:13.720 would be sixty two thousand miles in length, right, and 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:17.680 it would be made from lightweight carbon nanotubes, which again 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:20.480 according to some people, maybe a hundred times stronger than steel. 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:22.880 And then it's going to be security to a station 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:26.840 on Earth on one end. So depending on who you 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:29.200 talked to, you specifications for that ribbon vary. According to 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:32.119 the Institute for Scientific Research, the ribbon maybe three ft 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:34.400 wide and thinner than a sheet of paper, which is insane. 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:37.040 Something that's going to be slipping you up to space 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:39.120 and that a sheet of paper and maybe carrying all 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.720 sorts of expensive material and grandmas. And then if you 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.800 wanted to increase the amount of stuff you're bringing into space, 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:47.560 the payload you're bringing into space, and you would want 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:50.000 to scale up your space elevator by increasing the size 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:52.440 of your tether, which makes sense. Now this next part 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:54.640 really just floored me when I was when we were 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:58.080 researching it. And that's when you talk about the how 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:00.800 the counterweight stays in space, Like I ran this is 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:04.040 the simple explanation that I ran across from a scientist 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:06.200 and he was like, all right, imagine that your fist 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:09.360 is the is the planet, all right, and then you 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:12.920 have a bit of dental floss, you know, that, and 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:15.760 then that dental floss is tied to like a little um, 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:18.080 I don't know, like a little golf ball or something, right, 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:20.920 and then you like hold your fist over your head 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:23.800 and you just start swinging that golf ball around and 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:25.800 and of course the golf ball doesn't crash into your 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:29.640 fist because it's swinging around and around and around the rotation, 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:33.319 the rotation and all. And that's the same principle essentially 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:35.840 with the space elevator. And it's so simple that it 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:37.679 you know, it's one of those that kind of flourish. 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:39.280 You're like, that can't be right. That just sounds way 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.280 too simple, right, And we have the original space elevator guy, 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:46.480 the Russian Eurie, to thank for working this out. So 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:48.960 we all know that the Earth's force of attraction lessons 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:53.080 in proportion to the square of the distance, and centrifugal 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:55.560 force grows with the increase in distance. So what that 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:58.960 means is that at about a distance of fort KOs, 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:02.360 centrifugal force turns out to be an equal to the 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:05.000 force of gravity. So it's kind of cool. I never 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:08.280 knew that. And then the Institute for Scientific Research says 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:10.199 that by using the end of the ribbon like a slingshot. 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:12.920 You could send pretty serious payloads in the Moon, Mars 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:15.200 and beyond. That's so awesome. It's like if they're if 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:18.560 you're you're an astronaut, you're the Aunt. It's on the 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:20.880 little golf ball that's tied to the dental bloss that's 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:23.320 attached to my fist, and then you're swinging around and 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.760 then Aunt goes flying and on his way to Mars. 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:29.079 We are the ants, right, So let's talk about the 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:31.800 cars you have. These cars are climbers as they're called, 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:33.520 that are riding up the ribbon, and they're meant to 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:36.400 carry some serious weight and they themselves may way up 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:38.880 to twenty tons. So in one draft of the idea, 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:41.040 the cars attached to the ribbon have electric motors and 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:43.040 they get their power from a station on the ground 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:45.840 by way of laser beams. It's kind of a setup 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:48.560 like a ski lift, was one comparison I heard. And 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:51.200 then another idea is to use solar power instead of 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:53.600 laser beams to power the cars. Either way, you don't 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:55.360 want a huge engine on board because that kind of 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:58.760 negates the whole great thing about it. The solar energy 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:00.280 makes perfect sense because you're not going I have to 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:04.079 deal with with cloud cover right right, So inside the 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:07.000 cars could be roomier because of the relatively inexpensive cost 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:09.440 per pound, So great news for grandmas. She might have, 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:13.560 you know, sleeping and eating accommodations within the car. And 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:16.880 some of the estimates I've looked at um they show 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:19.280 that our like first space elevator, whenever we finally build 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:23.400 it could like bring thirteen tons of grandma's. Like, I 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:25.240 don't know if that's all the grandma's, but it's a large, 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:29.079 large assembly of grandma's it is, indeed. But you raise 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:31.480 an important point in that we're not going to be 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:35.040 sending grandma's up first. We're gonna be sending Also it's 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.440 important distress the grandma's will not be the first to 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:40.280 take the space elevator, no matter how many nights they 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:42.400 cam about to get tickets to be the first in line. 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:44.600 It sounds like a great Twilight Shone episode that where 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:46.280 it's like all the grandmas are called in for the 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:49.880 first space elevator, right, what's up right, We're gonna be 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:53.199 sending you know, different things for NASA and the European 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:55.800 Space Agency and all sorts of other folks are in 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:58.680 line before the Grandma's. I saw there's I saw an 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:01.920 article online talking about the map to the Space Elevator 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:03.920 which showed like some of the ways will test it, 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:05.960 which is kind of interesting and also kind of common sense. 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:08.920 It involves like using blimps to test like the early 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:11.960 section of it, and then using satellites to test the 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:14.320 higher portion of it until you reach the point where 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:18.760 you pull unrolled sort of the whole thing. So that's 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:21.960 pretty awesome. Would you be a guinea pig for that? No, No, 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:25.079 of course, I'm not a big fan of heights. So 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:27.800 you might be wondering how fast the cars are ascending. 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:30.240 I certainly was, and I heard according to space where 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:32.719 that there's a roughly a hundred miles per hours the 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:36.200 speed they would be going up. Okay, yeah, some of 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:38.160 the estimates I was looking at the talking about maybe 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:41.400 a week or so on board that thing. So I'm 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:43.520 guessing they'll probably some of that view to look at 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:45.480 the home, but there's some of the thirteen tons though. 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.400 You're gonna have to have your snack bars and your 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:51.480 places for the Grandma's to stay. You know, how are 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:55.280 the space bathroom work for Grandma yeah, because that's tricky, 0:11:55.600 --> 0:12:00.600 wouldn't you think, Yeah, it would on several levels. Um. 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:02.200 And then of course we have the ground station. Right, 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:04.080 let's not forget about the ground and has where's that 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:07.320 going to be? Well, the best scenario as far as 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:09.640 I've heard, is in the ocean, right, because you want 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:13.880 to have um, you don't want anybody getting close to it, right, 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:15.640 So the ocean is the best place to have like 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:19.800 a hundred mile no fly zone keep planes from accidentally 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:24.200 running into it. Um. No, you know, to keep your 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:27.679 villainous folk away from it in case they want to Yeah, 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:32.960 crazy people you know, anti space elevator, terrorists, etcetera. Um. 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:35.360 And then also if something goes wrong, I mean, it's 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:37.280 all that's another reason to stay back from it, right. 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:40.560 It's a it's a pretty big investment with new technology, 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:42.880 right right. And any other thing is that it needs 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:46.040 to be near the equator, right, Robert correct. Which also 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:49.640 has the benefit of of having there being fewer like 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:52.320 catastrophic storms in that area, so you don't have to 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:57.600 worry about like hurricanes blowing your tether around, gotcha, Right, 0:12:57.640 --> 0:12:59.160 So there will be a bit of movement kind of 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:02.200 like a guitar sty for the tether, which would be 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:05.880 a tad bit unsettling. Yeah, but it's kind of like, 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:07.959 you know, you want a little a little give and 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:10.600 take even with a skyscraper, So you definitely want some 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:15.240 give and take with something that stretches, uh six miles. Yes, intuitively, 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:17.319 I know that, but I'm still saying that I might 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:22.200 be a little bit frightened when that thing started. Wouldn't help. Yeah, 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:24.600 So why space elevator? What's the motivation behind it? I 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:27.199 think you guys know the answer to this. But um, 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:29.280 one of the people who's interested in this is a 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:31.400 company called Liftports, and their goal is to be the 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:35.199 folks behind mass transportation system that allows people to take 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:39.120 advantage of space and all the resources that space offers, 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:43.040 whether it's you know, mining asteroids or a helium three. 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:46.320 I mean, they want to be the transportation system for 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:49.320 even the smallest entrepreneur. Right. And the other great thing 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:53.679 about a space elevator is not just like physical um cargo, 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:56.880 but it would be a way to transport energy, a 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:02.239 way to transmit communications, um, you know in the information 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:05.560 it's uh, you know, it becomes a highway for for 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:08.280 all those things. Right, we break free the Earth, and 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:11.480 we start colonizing other worlds we established in the inter stations. 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:14.840 We finally get to go to Marsha or actually if 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:17.319 you we put a satellite into orbit and we make 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:19.880 a man and some robots watch bad movies on it, 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:22.840 like Mystery Sense Theater three thousand. They have a space 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:25.560 elevator of sorts in that show, is called the Umbilicus, 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:28.240 and they would Dr Clayton Forester would send the movie 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:31.560 up through that. So there's another sci fi example of 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:34.920 space elevator for you. Right. They're all over science fiction, 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:36.360 And there was also one of them book I just 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:40.200 read called Fearsome Engine by Ian M. Banks. I highly 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:44.360 recommend that to anybody who's into um into science fiction, 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:47.480 because there's a whole lot of like craze like anything. 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:49.280 I'm not gonna give any what anything like, except say 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:51.640 it has less of cyberpunk stuff in it. It has 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:54.560 stuff having to do with like um, with civilizations in 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:58.960 the Kardashef scale. It has stuff to do with like megastructures, um. 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:01.800 And there's in this particular world there was at one 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:05.480 point a space elevator, but it's long since been taken down. 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:08.760 That's a pretty glowing recommendation. So what are we talking 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:11.400 about for price to get Grandma on the space elevator? 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:14.800 The price, Yeah, I think it was a hundred dollars 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:16.880 per pound. So that's going to be a price of 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:20.760 a pretty serious plane ticket plus um luggage. Right, so 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:23.040 there maybe a hundred fifty pounds. You want to bring 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:29.000 fifty pounds of luggage, then you're talking roughly free Grandma 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:31.560 if you're a hundred fifty pounds. Wait, but why is 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:33.840 Grandma bringing fifty pounds of stuff in orbit? I don't 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:36.680 get that this Gamma need that many things. I just 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:38.360 like how much. I don't know. Maybe it's just a 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:40.520 lot of birthday cards to send now and stuff with 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:43.000 five dollar bills. I'm not really sure. I was just saying, 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:45.400 because you think of fifty pounds as the limit, you 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:47.280 know from when they you stick here, Well, I guess 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:49.760 you gotta bring a space suit, space food, all that stuff. 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:52.080 It ends up wings and max. Yeah. But one of 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:55.440 the thing is like sending anything into orbit, like using rockets. 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:57.840 That's the huge prices. The huge part of the price 0:15:57.880 --> 0:15:59.680 tag is like you want to send food into space, 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:02.840 It's really expensive because it has to you know, right 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:05.280 on top of rockets. So it is inflated. As this 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:08.800 price might sound, it's a bargain. It's total bargain sending 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:11.480 it up in a rocket. Yeah, and then price of 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:13.400 building it, some would argue as a bargain as well. 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:16.960 That's going to be around the realm of ten billion, 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:20.880 that's one estimate. Well, we've we've spent that much on 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.880 things that were far less beneficial to the human race before. 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:26.200 So I think no doubt. I'm all for it. Ten million. 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.600 Sock it away, start saving right now. Um. So you 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:32.520 may be thinking this is kind of fringe, and yes, 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.800 it is far off, but it's not fringe. Lest you 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.120 think it is fringe, let's talk about some of the 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:40.240 people and agencies that are involved in this. We've got 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:43.120 you know, NASA and the Las Alamos National Laboratory. We've 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:46.240 folks from m I, T you see, Berkeley, Locked Martin, 0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:49.640 European Space Society, all sorts of people and they all 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:52.160 get together every year. In fact, they're holding in August 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.880 two thousand ten Space Elevator Conference in Redmond, Washington. In 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:58.360 case you guys want to attend, I just give the 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:00.560 image of a bunch of scientist building a space elevator 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:03.040 like out in the field. Yeah, I don't think this 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:04.399 is it. I think it's got a little bit more 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:06.320 to it. So, among other things, are going to be 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:10.000 focusing on the four pillars of Space elevator development, and 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:14.000 those are science and technical aspects, Political, social, Yeah, because 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:16.399 obviously there's a like, how do you arrange to have 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:19.639 this giant section of of ocean that you're going to 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:22.480 erect it in? How do you, you know, convince people 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:25.560 there's not going to wreck their satellites, etcetera? Right? How 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:26.960 do you figure out who gets to ride on it, 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:31.800 who owns stuff, and who gets all the benefits from it, 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:35.600 you know, cost wise? Yeah, you're you're basically building a 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.800 gateway to like the Eighth Continent, you know, if you 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:41.040 can consider space or the Moon and the eighth continent, 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:43.120 and then it's like who owns the Eighth Continent? Right? 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:45.439 So another thing that they're going to be doing at 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:47.680 this Space Elevator conference is they're going to be holding 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:50.359 a materials engineering challenge that will play into the space 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:54.439 elevator development, and it's called the Strong Tether Competition. I 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:55.879 know you guys are wondering where I'm going with this, 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:58.080 but I promise you it has a point. So this 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:00.560 is a NASA sponsored challenge in which tames enter some 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:03.439 super strong tether that's subjected to a pool test. Right, 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:06.200 So in order to win the two million dollar prize, 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:09.280 that's no small chump change. The tether has to exceed 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:12.720 the strength of the best available commercial tether by with 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:14.400 no increase in mass. I wonder what they have pulling 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:16.399 on it, Like DoD they have those big, big guys 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:19.200 from the World's Strongest Man competition. That would be amusing. 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:22.800 I don't know. But at the two thousand nine Space 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:27.000 Elevator Conference, no one participated except for one exhibition only team, 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:29.160 and they brought with them a two point two meter 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:32.879 length of carbon nanotube. So carbon nanotube, you guys will remember, 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:36.640 is what some people have proposed building the elevators tether 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:40.280 out of. So according to NASA, this loop that the 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:42.600 team brought with them failed at a level that's well 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:45.879 below expected strength. But the fact that they made the 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:49.280 carbon nanotube loop was good news because we need that 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:52.480 ribbon first space elevator. So the main reason we're focusing 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:55.440 so much on the tether is of clearly it's a 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:59.520 key component that's the space elevator, but the materials technology 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:02.280 just and quite there yet. When will we have it though, 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:08.119 we're looking at what October thirty one. Yeah, they have 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:10.399 a running clock on their website and they have slated 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:13.000 October twenty one as the date. Two thousand one. I 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:15.960 gotta say, I'm pretty excited. Yeah, yeah, I bet they'll 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:18.320 Maybe they'll have the deal where you can like be 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:21.200 like going up in space, um on the on the 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:23.639 virgin Ship. You know, you can buy your tickets ahead 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:27.720 of time before the things even build. Yeah, there's gonna 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:29.800 be a lot of hype before that. Hey, So in 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:32.679 case you guys have nothing to do before two one, 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:34.400 when I go to the homepage and check out how 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:38.040 space elevators will work, or how space tourism works, or 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:40.680 how the Google Lunar exerprese works. Yeah, we have a 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:43.240 lot of great, great space content, so check it out. 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:47.040 And we're constantly throwing those links up to some of 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:51.600 these space related content pieces on our Twitter and our Facebook. 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:54.200 That's a stuff from the Science Lab on Facebook, Lab 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:57.320 stuff on Twitter. I also do a little stuff for 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:00.560 Discovery Space, so I'd like to throw that on to 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:03.399