An easy guide to the most exciting development in space travel since the rocket. Stripped of the technical jargon, this is a laymans guide to the breathtaking developments surrounding the space elevator: a plan to string a 100,000 km from Earth to space, revolutionising space access.
The authors take the reader through the history of the concept, technical design and economic practicalities of building an elevator to space, and, ultimately, the implications of what such a low cost transportation system would mean to society. Based on three years of NASA-funded studies and written for the technically literate layperson, Edwards and Westling discuss the recent technological advances that now make the space elevator feasible. They conclude by addressing the effects that the space elevator could have on mankind's future from communications and energy to colonizing space.
What Is Space Elevator One concept for a transportation system that would link planets to space is called a space elevator. A cable that is attached to the surface and extends into space would be the primary component of this system. Without the need for huge rockets, the architecture of the system would enable vehicles to ascend the cable from the surface of a planetary body, such as the surface of the Earth, and enter orbit directly. Because of the enormous weight, a space elevator based on Earth could not simply be a tall tower supported from below. Instead, it would consist of a cable with one end attached to the surface near the equator and the other end attached to a counterweight in space beyond geostationary orbit. This would allow the elevator to move between the surface and the counterweight. The opposing forces of gravity, which is stronger at the lower end, and the upward centrifugal force, which is stronger at the upper end, would result in the cable being held up, under tension, and stationary over a single position on Earth. Gravity is stronger at the lower end, while the upward centrifugal force is stronger at the upper end. After the tether has been deployed, climbers will be able to use mechanical methods to repeatedly ascend and descend the tether in order to release their payload into and out of orbit. How You Will Benefit (I) Insights, and validations about the following topics: Chapter 1: Space elevator Chapter 2: Interplanetary spaceflight Chapter 3: The Fountains of Paradise Chapter 4: Counterweight Chapter 5: Skyhook (structure) Chapter 6: Lunar space elevator Chapter 7: Megascale engineering Chapter 8: Yuri Artsutanov Chapter 9: Momentum exchange tether Chapter 10: Launch loop Chapter 11: Orbital ring Chapter 12: Globus Cassus Chapter 13: Space elevators in fiction Chapter 14: Specific strength Chapter 15: Gravity of Earth Chapter 16: Non-rocket spacelaunch Chapter 17: Space elevator safety Chapter 18: Space elevator construction Chapter 19: Space tether Chapter 20: Space elevator competitions Chapter 21: Hypothetical technology (II) Answering the public top questions about space elevator. (III) Real world examples for the usage of space elevator in many fields. (IV) 17 appendices to explain, briefly, 266 emerging technologies in each industry to have 360-degree full understanding of space elevator' technologies. Who This Book Is For Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of space elevator.
After aliens constructed an elevator from Darwin, Australia into space, humanity established orbital colonies along the elevator's cord. Years later, those outside of the machine's protective aura were wiped out by a mysterious plague. When the elevator's virus shield begins to break down, a scavenger and a scientist must unravel the mystery of the failing alien technology to save what's left of the world.
From the bestselling author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG! Last seen flying through the sky in a giant elevator in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie Bucket's back for another adventure. When the giant elevator picks up speed, Charlie, Willy Wonka, and the gang are sent hurtling through space and time. Visiting the world’' first space hotel, battling the dreaded Vermicious Knids, and saving the world are only a few stops along this remarkable, intergalactic joyride.
Under the editorship of David Raitt, this timely book brings together for the first time the record of people, places, developments and activities, in fiction and in fact, of the space elevator - a 100,000 km long, meter wide, ribbon reaching up from the Earth and into space along which robotic climbers that will travel to bring payloads into orbit at a fraction of the price of rocket launches. The chapters in the book cover the early pioneers who dreamt up the concept initially some 120 years ago; the work of modern day scientists and engineers who have developed the concept into doable plans; how the concept has been portrayed in novels, films and art; the conferences at which interested people could present and discuss their work and ideas; the global community that has grown up around space elevators and the competition challenges that have been held; and what the future may hold.
Now a Netflix film starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, Myha'la, Farrah Mackenzie, Charlie Evans and Kevin Bacon. Written for the Screen and Directed by Sam Esmail. Executive Producers Barack and Michelle Obama, Tonia Davis, Daniel M. Stillman, Nick Krishnamurthy, Rumaan Alam A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! Finalist for the 2020 National Book Award in Fiction One of Barack Obama's Summer Reads A Best Book of the Year From: The Washington Post * Time * NPR * Elle * Esquire * Kirkus * Library Journal * The Chicago Public Library * The New York Public Library * BookPage * The Globe and Mail * EW.com * The LA Times * USA Today * InStyle * The New Yorker * AARP * Publisher's Lunch * LitHub * Book Marks * Electric Literature * Brooklyn Based * The Boston Globe A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong. From the bestselling author of Rich and Pretty comes a suspenseful and provocative novel keenly attuned to the complexities of parenthood, race, and class. Leave the World Behind explores how our closest bonds are reshaped—and unexpected new ones are forged—in moments of crisis. Amanda and Clay head out to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a vacation: a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter, and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they’ve rented for the week. But a late-night knock on the door breaks the spell. Ruth and G. H. are an older couple—it’s their house, and they’ve arrived in a panic. They bring the news that a sudden blackout has swept the city. But in this rural area—with the TV and internet now down, and no cell phone service—it’s hard to know what to believe. Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple—and vice versa? What happened back in New York? Is the vacation home, isolated from civilization, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one other?
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of The Martian, a lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this “propulsive” (Entertainment Weekly), cinematic thriller full of suspense, humor, and fascinating science—in development as a major motion picture starring Ryan Gosling. HUGO AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST BOOKS: Bill Gates, GatesNotes, New York Public Library, Parade, Newsweek, Polygon, Shelf Awareness, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal • “An epic story of redemption, discovery and cool speculative sci-fi.”—USA Today “If you loved The Martian, you’ll go crazy for Weir’s latest.”—The Washington Post Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he? An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.
A trip to the Moon? Sounds like the perfect family vacation. Only, for 13-year-old Charles "Chigger" Dingillian, life is anything but perfect. His parents fight so much, they put the "dis" into dysfunctional. His brothers, Stinky and Weird, are impossible to get along with. And his neighborhood is a down-trodden tunnel community on Earth. It's supposed to be a short vacation—a trip up the Line, Earth's space elevator, and then home again. Halfway there, Chigger hits on a plan: if his parents can't find a way to work things out, why not just divorce them? The idea sounds crazy . . . until it works. But Chigger soon realizes he has much bigger problems: The people they meet on the Moon seem overly friendly and way too interested in his family. Suddenly, the quick pleasure trip takes a detour into danger as Chigger suspects they are targets of an interstellar manhunt. Their only hope may be to jump off the planet.