My Wild Elevator-to-the-Moon Proposal

[RobertVA]

Low Earth orbit requires about 17,500 MPH, reaching the moon requires nearly 25,000 MPH. Gaining 7500 MPH would require significant energy.

Atmospneric drag is quite a problem at high speeds. Launches utilize spectacularly powerful engines to quickly get the spacecraft off the pad and above the denser lower levels of the atmosphere. Once orbit is acheived further acceleration can be acomplished with longer operation of less powerful rockets like the shuttle's orbital maneuvering thrusters. The shuttle barely reaches orbit using the main engines, subsequently using the maneuvering thrusters to reach ISS or Hubble orbits. Since the shuttle is such a heavy spacecraft, reaching those orbits consumes nearly all the propellant thats not required for the deorbit burn(s).

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

As if previous objections to my idea weren't enough, I just thought of another one. Once the elevator is traveling east-to-west fast enough to rendezvous with the lunar cable (at a proposal-killing mach 10.4), it would no longer be orbiting, so it should fall back to earth like a rock. Of course, it would be attached to the ring, but I had pictured that as being another cable. If the ring were more solid, it would require even more material and possibly be even more difficult to put in place.

I guess I shouldn't put too much hope in my Elevator-to-Mars idea either. Just kidding.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

You know those nifty space-elevators you've heard of? Imagine a dozen or so of those things evenly spaced around the Earth's equator. I know that would be tricky since so much of the equator crosses the ocean, but nothing else about this proposal is going to be easy either, so just accept it.

Now imagine a giant ring connecting all of these elevators at the height of geostationary orbiting satellites (35,786 km). Another elevator connects to this ring, but instead of going down to the Earth it starts at the ring and extends outward. The connection with the outward-bound elevator moves along the ring from east to west so that to an outside observer it remains relatively stationary while the Earth rotates under it once every 24 hours.

The other end of this secondary elevator is rooted in surface of the nearside of the moon. The elevator is flexible, to account for the fact that the moon does not orbit in the exact same plane as the earth's equator. It can also collapse in on itself like a spyglass so that it can shorten to 350,000 km or lengthen to 410,000 km to account for the fact that the moon is closer to the earth at perigee than at apogee.

Imagine climbing into a comfortable compartment on the earth's surface, which automatically rides up to the ring, moves onto the ring, slowly accelerating from east to west until travelling approximately 11000 kilometers per hour, rendezvousing with the second connection, and spending the next day or so travelling in fun zero-G to your vacation destination: Hotel Luna.

Here is my obviously not-to-scale diagram:

I know it's crazy, but is it any more so than a Dyson sphere?

I had a 'similar' idea: LINK

Since that post I altered it to solar system travel only, such as from Earth to the Moon or Mars instead of to the next star system.

 

[chardman]

Ahhh. He's back! Joy!

Dig the new name. Not at all egotistical.