Sci-Fi Sky Line - Space Elevator Documentary (2015)

Tom

An Old Friend
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1h 14min | Documentary, Biography, Drama | 20 November 2015 (USA)
Sky Line (2015) - IMDb

The concept of an elevator to space is not new. In the world of Arthur C. Clarke, it is a natural progression. What most people don't know is that men and women around the world are working hard to build it right this moment. Some want to solve the energy crisis, some want easier access to raw materials in the solar system, and some just want to travel to space and gaze upon their home planet. For all of them though, the elevator is more than just a science fiction plot, it is a way of life. Discover what happens when egos and passions collide in a quest to build the impossible.

Plot Keywords:
space | space elevator | nasa | technology | space exploration

Watching this now. Pure garbage. This documentary has nothing to do with actually creating a space elevator. A dreamer's documentary. Pure fantasy.

Its not as much a matter of a strong enough material, it is an issue of connecting the cable to the weight. Its about having enough weight to offset wind shear and pressure deviations. Its about manuvering the cable to the anchor. It doesn't matter if the cable is shot into space while teathered to the Earth or dropped from the counterweight to the anchor. There will need to be a method to drive the cable to its destination and keep it there while connecting it.
If they were to actually attach the cable to both ends, the cable would whip about from natural weather cycles that would require massive stabilization forces at both ends. They depict the anchor at 60 times the distance of the ISS. A cable hundreds of miles long with no junctions. Then they want to send a mass up and down the cable in the wind shear that increases the pull on the space-born anchor requiring some type of reaction propulsion to maintain the tension on the cable.
An achor mass large enough to stabilize the cable would be affected by solar weather not to mention debris and asteroids. There is space junk in the orbit of the Earth - Lots of it. The cable and the trolley will be constantly bombarded by debris moving faster than the speed of sound. All it would take is one impact with enough force to weaken the cable and the massive anchor would rip it apart.

Attach a ribbon to a bungie cord to represent the tension of the anchor in space. Now, attach the ribbon to an anchor on the ground on a windy day by lowering the ribbon to the anchor. You might get lucky once so you better be quick securing it. Now if you guide the ribbon to the ground with your hand, the wind still whips the ribbon around while you are fastening it. After a bit you get it fastened. Now you pull the bungie tight and put tension on the ribbon. As long as there is not a strong gust it just stays put - but the ribbon is still vibrating. Now increase the gusts of wind to mimic a hurricane or a severe weather front. The bungie gives and takes as the ribbon moves around in all different directions. In space there is nothing maintaining pressure on the anchor except centripital force. Its not secured to anything except the cable. Every lateral tug of the cable from wind shear is going to change the position of the anchor. If you whip a garden hose 3 times you will get water in 3 different directions. Some may be close but never precision close. Now your anchor is off center. So its swaying in space. That's more tortional stress on the cable and if it sways too much it could create a whip action that will send it all crashing down or out to space.

Like anything Space Elevator related - Wishful Thinking. Sure its a good story element if you don't think about it.
 

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