I watch the science channel, national geographic channel and all those similar quite often. i find i cant get enough info on everything in our universe. on one of these channels i saw a commercial for what i believe was/is a contest for people to try and create ideas for a "space elevator". whatever a space elevator is i suppose is up to those creating it. i have no idea if its a real contest, or if it was a fake commercial. either way, i've been thinking a lot about it. obviously, at this point in our existance we our hindered by our resources and technology, advanced as they may be, there is still no EASY way to get around space. ion-drives work, but earths gravity and atmosphere definatly weigh us down. if the human species intends on permanently colonizing another body in space, there are without a doubt several aspects that need to be hammered out. one big one, in my opinion is transportation back and forth. if a setlement on the moon or mars is going to work, there are going to be numerous trips there and back. thats where the space elevator comes into play. mars is far away. duh. but its distance from earth varies more than any other planet. it can be 36 million miles away, or 250 million miles away. besides it probably being impossible to create a stationed whatever stretching from here to mars, the distance and position changes way too much. here goes my idea..... keep in mind that i dont know which, or if anything i'm going to say is technologically possible or probable. i'm a electrical student and i've learned a small bit about photosensors. electric equiptment that has sensors that sense light to perform different tasks. such as turning on security light fixtures at dusk and off at dawn. i'm not sure, but i think photosensors can be used to detect the presence of something. for example, a light that goes on when someone walks past the sensor. what if there was a device that could detect the presence of light and follow it? its hard to type what i see in my brain..... but.... imagine a laser beamed directly from earth to mars or the moon. then, a circular device that circles the beam has photosensors all inside it to find the light and know where it is. my idea would be to put these sensors in a circle, on every square millimeter of the inside of a large pipe to be placed vertically in the center of the elevator. in my mind, the elevators photosensors can detect the laser beam and be directed right to its destination. eliminating the need for equiptment docked on both sides that is connected.... like a traditional elevator. this way, the elevator can reach mars, or where ever, no matter where it is in the sky. just point the laser and go. if it works, several elevators could be in operation at the same time. different ones designated for different tasks.. such as one for passengers, others to be used a freight elevators, and others for who knows. like i said in the beginning.... i have no clue if this would ever be possible. economically or logically. either way... something will no doubt HAVE to be done to figure out an better way to transport people and resources to ohter worlds. several resources can be taken from mars or the moon. howver, the equiptment to harvest these things has to get there. taking off from earth is quite an expensive, and dangerous event. with our current technology, a vast number of trips is needed to transport the large amount of everything that will have to be on mars. such as drills to obtain buried water ice; machines that separate hydrogen for rocket feul; resources to build housing, vehicles, and any other structure; and most importantly the humans. with a "space elevator" or ten, trips back and forth could (in my crazy theory) be made much simpler. once we have our foot in the door of the cosmos, we can go anywhere. figuratively speaking... for now. using the moon or mars as a hub to reach further into space is, in my opinion, vital to our species success at explorers... and as a species in general. our planet is NOT going to last forever. especially at the rate its going now. with the discovery of sooo many exoplanets (extra-solar planets.. outside our solar system) it is now obvious that there are places for us to go. planets in the so-called "goldilocks zone" have been discovered. possibly ranging in temp from 32-132 degrees F. in the future, to get to those planets we are going to need a much more effective way of traveling. and taking off in 1/6th the gravity (moon) is 1/6 easier. who knows if we will see humans walking to the store on mars. but i hope we will see a human atleast walk on mars. nasa has plans to go there.... but people can break plans. i personnaly think its a need to go there. and other places for that matter. all i know is this.... if i don't get to go in a space shuttle and atleast orbit the earth before i die, i will die a very, very bitter man. i made a shitty model of my idea using the paint program on my computer but GC wont let me upload it cuz it says its the wrong type of file. whatever ".bmp" means.... thats what is said. my scanner is on the fritz too so i cant san the pic i drew. anyone know how i can get the file i made in the paint program to my gallery?? wow... this got a lot longer than i wanted..... oh well. any feedback? comments? i'm sure theres gonna be people poking holes in my idea.... so let me say this for a third time.... i have no idea if any of this will work. if any of this stuff already exists. if any of it is even plausable. so those of you who want to actlike a dildo and post tons of reasons why i'm wrong and this is dumb... save it. and if u cant control your urge to suck.... heres a big BLOW ME in advance. rasta.... what do u think about this idea??? -cmr-
I understand what you're trying to say, and if you want the opinion of a layperson, it sounds plausible. But like I said, I don't know anything about photosensors or space travel. (By the way, you can upload your picture if you resave it as a .jpg or .jpeg file. Try doing that. )
If I invented that I would call it a Displacer, not an elevator. Plus it has the added "space" pun. Go me!
I really don't follow your post, I'm kinda confused. Lasers? Photosensors? I understand the space elevator, and also understand that there is significant engineering obstacles. I don't really know what you're talking about. Summarize?
I've been a supporter of a space elevator since I first heard of the idea (Asimov ofcourse). But the concept is a bit more, umm, limited than in your proposal chief. Basically it is an elevator that goes from the surface of the earth into high orbit. By necessity this system (thick cables really) must be of a very durable material with hitherto impossible tensile strength. Though nano-technology do make it possible, it's just not scaled to mass-production yet. The concept is simple. Get a huge rocket into high orbit, and release simultaniously a length of cable both up and down with counterweights on both ends. This should ensure geostationary orbit. Next all you need is a wagon (or more) that can travel up and down this cable. This mode of transporting stuff into space carries two very significant positives. First it would be tremendously cheap per trip. The wagons can be electrically powered, and they do not need to reach the high velocity like say a rocket do to reach orbit. Secondly, you can haul a hella'lot more cargo per trip by traversing this cable than any rocket system. It would make orbital space (and thus deep space) very accessible. For further exploration, you could build rather huge space-ship modules on earth, haul it up into orbit cheaply, and from there assemble into ships that can easily go to Mars or any other destination. Some cargo (like deep-space explorers) could even follow the cables entire length, and through centrifugal forces alone (after reaching neutral orbit) reach a high velocity just by disconnecting from the cable and launch towards whatever target on Newtons laws alone. Like a slingshot really. Not to mention huge spacestations in orbit that surrounds the cable. They'd be relatively easy to build afterall, since the accessability would be so great.
still a space shuttle is travelling like at 16000mph and it takes along time to get to moon/mars. Thus u wuld need to get a human to 16000mph and it wud still be a very long trip. So...get some1 moving faster right? youd need to put on crazy g-suit type things cuz u will want to accelerate fast and put tremendous stress on a body. Likewise youd need to generate crazy alot of power to get a motor to speed things to that sppeeeed on a consistent level. Since you concede to the idea of this being realistic, cold fusion will help put this thing in production
The idea is to put things in orbit, not to transverse the solar system. Solar sails would be the best bet for that. besides, once you've enter a micro gravity environment, you don't experience g-forces.
G-forces stop when acceleration stops. If you stop accel. in the earths atmoshere there will be 0 Gs. Likewise if you are in a micro-gravity environment and shot a rocket off the side of the ship youd experience a g-force. Since its difficult to accel a person at the rate of a shuttle, you will be accel slower and prolly past the earths atmosphere. But yes once you get to speed you can pretty much just coast the rest the way
And do not forget that once in geostationary orbit, you are really moving really fast... Whilst in geostationary orbit, you can reach any part of the solar system by a small nudge of a conventional rocket. Just to let go of earth orbit so to speak. Or any other propultion system that is more powerful if you are in a hurry and need to burn fuel (and thus accelerate) all the way. Or that is, half the way. You need to decelerate too, but hey, details. (like my spelling...)
i appreciate all your input... but when i was pondering all this (over a while) i thought about using cables or some other device to keep the elevator, wagon, whatever from drifting off into the vacuum of space. ok rasta check this.... picture a pipe that is vertically installed in the vehicle... on every square inch (fuck metric...) of the inside of the pipe are the photosensors. little devices that thier sole purpose in life is to detect light. now, we already have the technology to program space crafts the "think" for themselves and traverse space on thier own... so to speak. these crafts "look" around at fixed points that are always going to be in the same spot, no matter what. objects such as planets and stars. things in space that the computer on the craft recognizes, and then determines its coordinates and direction of flight based on those things around it. my idea is to harness that technology so the photosensors in the pipe (i like to call it the "cylindrical directional device" ) each know thier location relevant to the laser that is reaching from earth to the destination. in theory, all the photosensors would instantly locate the laser as it is moving up, keeping it on the correct path. obviously, if the laser is compromised, the vehicle is most likely lost. unless something is designed to either prevent that, or to save it if it does happen. so basically, the photosensors see the laser, and are programmed to move along that laser as they are determining its locations relevant to themselves. i thought about if a shorter trip would make life easier. such as having the starting point already in earth orbit.... perhaps on the ISS. Or maybe better, the moon. one big problem i've been having is gravity. on the way up gravity is going to be lost. new crafts being designed are either equpt or in the process of being equipt with a centrifigal (spelling) system that releases a hunk of metal on a cable off the craft and the two of them spin around each other, thus creating gravity. in so many words...lol. if you can picture the elevator going up, following this laser to the moon... would a centrifigal system work?? i suppose that a "spinning" vehicle would increase the passengers view of the sights around him. projecting an arm off one side of the vehicle that holds onto the "gravity maker", and creating gravity by spinning the cabin on a level plane. i suppose that makes sense. or maybe it would create gravity on the walls, instead of the floor. in dunno. its hard to explain in terms everyone can understand. hopefully that helps, rasta. basically, instead of an elevator on a cable connected to pully systems, it follows a laser. eliminating a lot of material. i've said it before and i'll say it again... i doubt it would work. but to me, it sounds like it would. after much debating, and much money spending, and much obstacle hurdling.... it might work. i'm really racking my brain to find a simpler way to explain.... zylark.... speaking of acceleration.... ion-drive systems build up speed after a while. lessening the g-force. they work by charging particles and expelling them at a high rate out the back of the engine. (extremly summarized using the little knowledge i have on the topic)) i'm not sure, but i think they create its source of acceleration itself. however, i think a more traditional rocket would work best for my elevator. due to the shorter distances, the ion-drive system would (i think) take too long to speed up on the short trip. by the time it got really going, it would be time to stop. the laser would have to be directed to previously built docks at the destination. several different docking stations at different locations to combat the ever changing location of the destination. heres another crude drawing.... the best i can do on the paint program... -cmr-