Space Elevator to the Solar System and beyond

by david.ledgard@tiscali.co.uk

I understand a U.S. Corporation is building a 'Space Elevator' on the Equator in Brazil, just in from the coast. This can carry Men and Machinery up to Space at 1/3 the Cost. The Carriage is 10 Stories High, with 3 stories of batteries that recharge on the way down. There will be 16 (4x4) with 8 wires each. The middle 4 are for emergencies. It has to be exactly on the Equator for reasons of the Earth's Spin. It will save a lot of Rocket Fuel which is phenominally expensive! And make a bigger Spacestation possible; Moonbase; Mar Mission; Asteriod Mining (mainly Nickle-Iron, and Rare Earth Metals); and Jupiter Mission.

Galileo famously observed four Moons of Juptier through a Telescope. After it was fashioned from a polishing stone. He was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher. In Pope Urban VIII time. The Moons were named Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto - observable because they were the largest. It now has 66 confirmed Moons. some must be tiny. Juptier has been visited by Space Probes and photographed.

Near Earth Stars


Brazil Flag Saturday, 19th March 2005

"And we shall turn swords into plough shears...", The Book of Isaiah, The Bible.

It’s in Brazil’s flag! Why don’t you build a Space Elevator to lift men and materials cheaply and safely up to space. This would allow the building of:

Your decision not to build a nuclear bomb was a wise one you didn’t need it and haven’t got credit for giving it up. And your long history of peace with your neighbours is a lesson to all.

Pax Terra.


Space Elevator – a cheap way to get into Space.

Forget the roar of rocketry and those bone jarring lift-offs, the elevator would be a smooth 62,000-mile (100,000-kilometre) ride up a long cable. Payloads can shimmy up the Earth-to-space cable, experiencing no large launch forces, slowly climbing from one atmosphere to a vacuum.

Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, Venus, the asteroids and beyond - they are routinely accessible via the space elevator. And for all its promise and grandeur, this mega-project is made practical by the tiniest of technologies - carbon nano-tubes. An asteroid would be used to support the nano-tubes linking heaven to Earth.

Space visionary, Arthur C. Clarke, centred his novel of the late 1970s, The Fountains of Paradise, on the notion.


Space Elevator to the Solar System and beyond. Built from a incredibly thin and extremely long atomic chain, linking the Earth to an Orbiting Asteroid, and able to lift cargo at an extremely low cost as compared with rockets. Scientifically proven.

The Fountains of Paradise set in a fictionalised (10 degrees South so it is on the equator) version of Arthur C. Clarke's adopted home of Sri Lanka, one of his most personal. The story is based around the fantastical yet scientifically supportable idea of a 'Space Elevator', a 'tower' from the earth to geo-stationary orbit, 23,000 miles "high". The purpose is to make access to space routine, safe and cheap, and the 22nd century-set novel essentially follows Vannevar Morgan in his quest to complete this monumental project.

My Favourite Books - Paradise Section.


www.colonization.biz/moonbase.htm - a bit about the Moonbase game.

Moonbase is a very unusual game, quite apart from the run of the mill. It is one of my favourites. The game is not by a software company as such, but by a Construction Company, predicting a near future Moon base, and showing how it can by technically, and more importantly economically feasible, the Programmers consulted NASA experts. The concept gels well, and seems plausible, but one decimal point in the wrong place for commodity prices, and it could all fall to bits. The game rightly predicted that there was a high chance of finding water deposits on the Moon, in the form of crashed meteorites. Since the real life discovery plans for a Moon base have been revealed, showing just how critical it is. In the game you don’t always find water, it is winnable without it – just! But a walk over with it, as it is needed for drinking, growing food (it is highly costly to ship in), and for making oxygen and rocket fuel (H20 -> Liquid Oxygen and Hydrogen).

You also get a big manual, which is a story, with technical and game information scattered through it, most novel (pardon the pun). The story involves, not surprisingly, the foundation of a lunar colony. With another Chinese colony on the other side of the moon (again very plausible in today's world). Among other thing they have to prevent a melt down of a fission reactor, see to a crashed Lander, break a strike, and trade solar power with the Chinese, as one side of the moon is in darkness, when the other is light, with a lunar might lasting 14 earth days, this makes a lot of sense.


Near Earth Stars

Stars with in 100 Light Years of Sol (Earth's Star): (*) denotes a star system that could host at least one rocky inner planet.

Stars beyond 100 Light Years of Sol:

Note: The Star Systems of Orion itself, Trandor, and Terminus are far beyond the 100 Light Year Radius. All the above Stars are in our Milky Way Galaxy.

Saturday, 11th August 2012

As the Roman saying goes: "The times are changing and we with the times."

"Here I am creating new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be called to mind, neither will they come up into the heart.", The Book of Isaiah 65:17, The Bible.


Gulf Cooperation Council: “(GCC), organization (est. 1981) promoting stability and economic cooperation among Persian Gulf nations. Its members are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. In 1991 the GCC countries joined with Egypt and Syria to create a regional peacekeeping force. An aid fund was also established to promote development in Arab states; it was used to help liberate Kuwait in 1991. In 2001 the GCC agreed to establish a customs union in 2003 and a broader economic union (including a single market and currency) by 2010.”

The countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council could club together and build a Space Elevator on the Equator in Somalia, bringing peace to that troubled country at the same time. Other countries might wish to join the GCC such as the Yemen, Jordan, and Iraq. The Kurds of Syria and Iraq might wish for autonomy and their own state. This could lead to a federation of Arab states.

The estimated cost of the Space Elevator is $10 Billion, say $20 Billion as projects costs always spiral out of control. With Oil at $50 / Barrel rising to $80 (due to increasing world demand and monopoly status) the Gulf States could easily afford this. $80 / Barrel would be good for the environment. Oil is a finite resource and won't last for ever. What are we to do when it runs out?

Lebanon, Palestine and Israel couldn’t join due to their strong Christian and Jewish heritage. Also military ports in the Eastern Mediterranean would be a direct and unacceptable challenge to NATO and lead to an expensive and pointless arms race. Israel could go non-nuclear and join NATO and the European Union after ceding South Israel to the Palestinians to provide a land link between the West Bank and Gaza so it could become a major port / oil terminus for the GCC. Beruit would naturally link to Damascus.

As you can not always point to Mecca when you need to pray when in Space would Islam outlaw ANY Muslim going into Space. If outlawed Robots could be sent or Christians, or Baha’I.