Space Elevator

Scientist Sees Space Elevator in 15 Years

By CARL HARTMAN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) wants to return to the
moon and put a man on Mars. But scientist Bradley C. Edwards has an
idea that's really out of this world: an elevator that climbs 62,000
miles into space.

Edwards thinks an initial version could be operating in 15 years, a
year earlier than Bush's 2020 timetable for a return to the moon. He
pegs the cost at $10 billion, a pittance compared with other space
endeavors.

"It's not new physics — nothing new has to be discovered, nothing new
has to be invented from scratch," he says. "If there are delays in
budget or delays in whatever, it could stretch, but 15 years is a
realistic estimate for when we could have one up."

Edwards is not just some guy with an idea. He's head of the space
elevator project at the Institute for Scientific Research in Fairmont,
W.Va. NASA (news - web sites) already has given it more than $500,000
to study the idea, and Congress has earmarked $2.5 million more.

"A lot of people at NASA are excited about the idea," said Robert
Casanova, director of the NASA Institute of Advanced Concepts in
Atlanta.

Edwards believes a space elevator offers a cheaper, safer form of
space travel that eventually could be used to carry explorers to the
planets.

Edwards' elevator would climb on a cable made of nanotubes — tiny
bundles of carbon atoms many times stronger than steel. The cable
would be about three feet wide and thinner than a piece of paper, but
capable of supporting a payload up to 13 tons.

The cable would be attached to a platform on the equator, off the
Pacific coast of South America where winds are calm, weather is good
and commercial airplane flights are few. The platform would be mobile
so the cable could be moved to get out of the path of orbiting
satellites.

David Brin, a science-fiction writer who formerly taught physics at
San Diego State University, believes the concept is solid but doubts
such an elevator could be operating by 2019.

"I have no doubt that our great-grandchildren will routinely use space
elevators," he said. "But it will take another generation to gather
the technologies needed."

Edwards' institute is holding a third annual conference on space
elevators in Washington starting Monday. A keynote speaker at the
three-day meeting will be John Mankins, NASA's manager of human and
robotics technology. Organizers say it will discuss technical
challenges and solutions and the economic feasibility of the elevator
proposal.

The space elevator is not a new idea. A Russian scientist, Konstantin
Tsiolkovsky, envisioned it a century ago. And Arthur C. Clarke's novel
"The Foundations of Paradise," published in 1979, talks of a space
elevator 24,000 miles high, and permanent colonies on the moon,
Mercury and Mars.

The difference now, Edwards said, is "we have a material that we can
use to actually build it."

He envisions launching sections of cable into space on rockets. A
"climber" — his version of an elevator car — would then be attached to
the cable and used to add more lengths of cable until eventually it
stretches down to the Earth. A counterweight would be attached to the
end in space.

Edwards likens the design to "spinning a ball on a string around your
head." The string is the cable and the ball on the end is a
counterweight. The Earth's rotation would keep the cable taut.

The elevator would be powered by photo cells that convert light into
electricity. A laser attached to the platform could be aimed at the
elevator to deliver the light, Edwards said.

Edwards said he probably needs about two more years of development on
the carbon nanotubes to obtain the strength needed. After that, he
believes work on the project can begin.

"The major obstacle is probably just politics or funding and those two
are the same thing," he said. "The technical, I don't think that's
really an issue anymore."
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