A Space Elevator Draft

[ShawnDriscoll]

I resumed work on my space elevator last night. It was modeled in Hexagon 1.21 using a repeated stack of links. I think it's 12km tall. Might be more than that. So I can repeat what I've built onto further stacks until it reaches some orbit height somewhere. But for close shots, I had enough of the elevator to work from for this Vue scene.

The longest part was just deciding how big the anchor should be and what that all looks like. I still have a lot of structure to add around the ground connection. I'm thinking of having the elevator go down a ways into the ground. But I still need something in the ground for the elevator shaft to hang onto. So that is being worked out.

This shot could be of a new (found) world. Vacant. For reasons, an elevator was approved first before any starport construction. Maybe the starport will be pre-fabbed on the spot, depending on what materials are left behind when the elevator is completed. If in twenty years, this world is expected to be a busy place, a class A starport will be attached near the base, along with a highport at the other end. Otherwise, it will default to a class C with just drones roaming the wastes until someone wants to make something out of the world.

I needed a real basic image like this for artifact use in a one-shot. Maybe two one-shots ago. So now I made time to make one for show-n-tell with players for the next time. Depending on how that elevator holds up, more stuff may get added to it for another possible one-shot.

 

[Tenacious-Techhunter]

None of the space-elevator concepts ever pitched consisted of rigid structure like that. You’re way off-base.

 

[FallingPhoenix]

None of the space-elevator concepts ever pitched consisted of rigid structure like that. You’re way off-base.

Maybe his space elevator is like your stealth in space.

Edit: I'm sorry. That response was flippant and perhaps dismissive. Let me try again.

It's true that the most frequent ideas I've heard for a space elevator with anything even close to currently possible technology uses some kind of super-material flexible cable. On the other hand, it seems to me there could easily be something between now and TL 15 that could allow for a rigid construction instead.

It's a pretty cool picture, Shawn.

 

[phavoc]

None of the space-elevator concepts ever pitched consisted of rigid structure like that. You’re way off-base.

The only difference with his model from other models I have seen is that his is hexagonal and not circular. Every other model I've seen, scientific and sci-fi has been a rigid tower built of super materials not currently available to us.

 

[fusor]

In the interest of preventing petty arguments, how about having some actual facts to base the representation on?

http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/space-flight/how-to-build-a-space-elevator-from-scratch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator_construction

 

[FallingPhoenix]

In the interest of preventing petty arguments, how about having some actual facts to base the representation on?

http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/space-flight/how-to-build-a-space-elevator-from-scratch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator_construction

Thanks, fusor.

 

[Tenacious-Techhunter]

By the time you could build rigid space elevators, no one would want to unless you could get a very significant advantage, as the proven flexible cable technology would be so robust that the advantage of switching would have to be worth the development cost of making that change.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

It's true that the most frequent ideas I've heard for a space elevator with anything even close to currently possible technology uses some kind of super-material flexible cable. On the other hand, it seems to me there could easily be something between now and TL 15 that could allow for a rigid construction instead.

It's a pretty cool picture, Shawn.

This render doesn't reveal how it works. So it may seem as a rigid structure this far away. It's still barebones for now.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

The only difference with his model from other models I have seen is that his is hexagonal and not circular. Every other model I've seen, scientific and sci-fi has been a rigid tower built of super materials not currently available to us.

Here's one that has some of the same design I'm using. My elevator won't be as heavy-looking though.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

None of the space-elevator concepts ever pitched consisted of rigid structure like that. You’re way off-base.

There are plenty of much more rigid space elevators on the Internet, Ryan. You're just not looking.

 

[fusor]

None of the space-elevator concepts ever pitched consisted of rigid structure like that. You’re way off-base.

There are plenty of much more rigid space elevators on the Internet, Ryan. You're just not looking.

Don't go by artist impressions - artists often get it wrong. That's why I posted the links that contained actual descriptions.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Don't go by artist impressions - artists often get it wrong. That's why I posted the links that contained actual descriptions.

So far, there are no space elevators. Everything about them is still a design concept. I don't trust Wiki because they plagiarize my time-travel and aerospace fiction as fact on their site.

Me being a role-player, Traveller game sessions are not about the infrastructure so much. The elevator might stay unfinished when the characters come across it. Something abandoned maybe. Or being used for something else. Characters that look deeper at it will figure out what it's keyed on. May even get it partially working. Or it may just remain scenery in the background. Depends on how a one-shot goes, and what kind of characters players choose for themselves.

 

[fusor]

Don't go by artist impressions - artists often get it wrong. That's why I posted the links that contained actual descriptions.

So far, there are no space elevators. Everything about them is still a design concept. I don't trust Wiki because they plagiarize my time-travel and aerospace fiction as fact on their site.

That is utterly irrelevant to the point I was making. The theory of building a space elevator is known, the physics is understood. There are plenty of descriptions online and in physical books on the subject, for anyone who cares enough to bother doing the research. If you want to actually illustrate something, then the onus is on you as the illustrator to do that research. If instead you just want to do an artistic interpretation of your muddled understanding of what a space elevator is then go ahead - just don't try to claim it's a legitimate illustration.

 

[Tenacious-Techhunter]

None of the space-elevator concepts ever pitched consisted of rigid structure like that. You’re way off-base.

There are plenty of much more rigid space elevators on the Internet, Ryan. You're just not looking.

Note how I said “ever pitched”; as in, “by and to space agencies”. Concepts that fail to consider shear strength, tensile strength, and compression strength are unworthy of repetition. So don’t.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Don't go by artist impressions - artists often get it wrong. That's why I posted the links that contained actual descriptions.

So far, there are no space elevators. Everything about them is still a design concept. I don't trust Wiki because they plagiarize my time-travel and aerospace fiction as fact on their site.

That is utterly irrelevant to the point I was making. The theory of building a space elevator is known, the physics is understood. There are plenty of descriptions online and in physical books on the subject, for anyone who cares enough to bother doing the research. If you want to actually illustrate something, then the onus is on you as the illustrator to do that research. If instead you just want to do an artistic interpretation of your muddled understanding of what a space elevator is then go ahead - just don't try to claim it's a legitimate illustration.

Space elevators are theory, period. Illustrate to us how they should look. It'll just be another theory anyway. You don't role-play though, do you. You're more a board gamer, right? With tiles and all?

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Note how I said “ever pitched”; as in, “by and to space agencies”. Concepts that fail to consider shear strength, tensile strength, and compression strength are unworthy of repetition. So don’t.

Changing your subject as usual. Noted.

 

[fusor]

Space elevators are theory, period. Illustrate to us how they should look.

If you read the pages and books about the subject, then you can illustrate it. There's a world of information at your fingertips, and instead you choose to stick your head up your arse. Are you really so proud of being ignorant? Are you so threatened by actual knowledge? Is it really so much effort to try to understand how things work?

I guess you'll just have to excuse me for trying to point you in a direction to improve your work and knowledge base.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Space elevators are theory, period. Illustrate to us how they should look.

If you read the pages and books about the subject, then you can illustrate it. There's a world of information at your fingertips, and instead you choose to stick your head up your arse. Are you really so proud of being ignorant? Are you so threatened by actual knowledge? Is it really so much effort to try to understand how things work?

I guess you'll just have to excuse me for trying to point you in a direction to improve your work and knowledge base.

You and Ryan just like to argue is all. Doesn't matter what I post.

I'll keep making new threads though, so people new to this game/forum can see what I'm doing with Traveller. Maybe they will post stuff as well. Like HSlam has, if he's still around after getting dog-piled on.

 

[fusor]

You and Ryan just like to argue is all. Doesn't matter what I post.

Oh spare us the sob story and take some responsibility for your behavior for once. All I did was post some links in the hope that you may want to educate yourself on what a space elevator could actually look like. YOU are the one who ungratefully rejected that. Obviously everyone else is the problem though, not you.

I'm sure you will keep posting your threads and ignoring what people say though, because why on earth should you listen to anyone else?

 

[phavoc]

That is utterly irrelevant to the point I was making. The theory of building a space elevator is known, the physics is understood. There are plenty of descriptions online and in physical books on the subject, for anyone who cares enough to bother doing the research. If you want to actually illustrate something, then the onus is on you as the illustrator to do that research. If instead you just want to do an artistic interpretation of your muddled understanding of what a space elevator is then go ahead - just don't try to claim it's a legitimate illustration.

You made a correct statement in "The theory of building a space elevator is known". However we have no practical knowledge to test that against. There are many projects that litter the history books where the theory and practical didn't match.

Since space elevators only exist in theory, and in sci-fi, anyone's illustration is "legitimate". It used to be we had the physics of aircraft wings and how the provided lift down, from theory to practicality. Except as we learned more and understood more, the shape of a wing has changed, the materials we use have change, and our understanding of aerodynamics has changed - all because we went from theory to practicality, which created more theories which required more prototypes to prove the theory. Engineers build 1-1 scale prototypes to test theories all the time. NASA has tested space tethers since the Gemini mission era. They tested them again on a couple of shuttle flights. The tests failed, though in theory they should have worked. This tells us that our theories are not 100% translatable into reality. We still have much to learn and more theories to test.

When we have more than one space elevator in existence, at that point we will have real-world data to compare back against. Who knows, maybe if we ever actually build one we'll learn something new and unexpected.

The current material proposed is carbon nanotubes (I've seen talk of also using synthetic diamonds) which have many remarkable characteristics. One proposal called for a "cable", with 4-6 channels built into it to support elevators going up/down the cable. That sounds suspiciously like a circular tower, not a true cable.