Elevator
to the Moon to Become Reality in 8 Years
The
idea of a space elevator is not new. For the first time, it was put forward by
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1895. Afterwards, the idea received detailed analysis
in the works of scientist Yuri Artsutanov, the Rossiyskaya
Gazeta wrote.
The
LiftPort Group, a US based privately-owned company, with former NASA researcher
Michael Laine at the head, is planning
to build a space elevator to the Moon. The idea of a space elevator stipulates
a rocket-free way to transport people and cargoes into orbit with the use of a
special cable
The
California-based company founded by former NASA engineer has developed a cheap
and easy way to get to the lunar surface. The project is based on a special
ribbon cable, on which transport modules and autonomous robots will travel. At
first, the researchers plan to test the system on the planet: the test elevator
will be 2 kilometers high. Afterwards, a working system will be built.
Initially, the company will use a space elevator to connect the Moon with a
specially designed space station. The station will then be connected to a
platform on Earth.
Company
President Michael Laine believes that it will take eight years to build the
elevator. The construction will require only a single launch of a spacecraft
that would technically resemble the famous Soviet Sputnik-1. It is assumed that
such an elevator can already become a part of modern-day reality taking into
consideration the current level of the technological development.
The
space elevator, scientists say, will help people build manned bases on the
Earth’s natural
satellite and organize the extraction of helium-3 there – a raw
material that will solve global problems of the shortage of energy resources,
writes EnergySafe.
According to most pessimistic estimates, the reserves of helium-3 on the Moon
will be enough for Earth’s population
for at least 1,000 years.
LiftPort
Group does not doubt its success. The company is going to attract potential
investors after the tests that will be conducted on the funds raised on the
Internet. NASA, where Michael Lane worked before, has already evinced interest
in the project, reportsFreeSMI.by.
The
Liftport Group says it plans to start small, and has already raised the money
for the first stage of its plans. At a cost of just $8,000, it intends to
launch a robot on a tether attached to a balloon two kilometers up, breaking
its previous record by half a kilometer.
The
next stage, says the company, will be to make an even higher one, to as high as
three kilometers. This will mean dealing with the effects of sub-zero
temperatures on equipment.
Building
the real thing, though, will cost rather more - as much as $800 million, says
Liftport.
A
space elevator, or orbital tower, would be able to lift cargo cheaply and
easily to orbit. A cable, probably made from carbon nanotubes, would stretch
from the surface up to a geostationary orbit - and beyond, to create a
counterweight keeping the whole thing stable.
As
one 'elevator car' goes up, another descends, recovering a lot of the energy
used.
"Once
the Lunar Elevator is fully functioning, astronauts and equipment will be able
to soft-land cargo on the lunar surface. Compared to flying the Space Shuttle,
humankind will be able to travel 1,000 times farther for one-tenth the
price," says the company.
"Using
our models, we believe we can build a LSEI [Lunar Space Elevator
Infrastructure] that can transport three dozen people to the Moon per year,
before this decade is out."
Liftport's
long had ambitions to build a space elevator on Earth; but the moon would make
for a much easier location. There's less gravity, meaning that the cable
wouldn't need to be as long, and less atmosphere - as well as a lot less
politics.
Last
year, Japanese construction company Obayashi announced plans to build a space
elevator on Earth by 2050. The firm says it hopes that the terminal station
could house tourists as well as a laboratory.
Measuring
Air Leaks Into the Vacuum Space of Large Liquid Hydrogen Tanks
Large cryogenic liquid hydrogen tanks are composed of inner
and outer shells. The outer shell is exposed to the ambient environment while
the inner shell holds the liquid hydrogen. The region between these two shells
is evacuated and typically filled with a powder-like insulation to minimise
radiative coupling between the two shells. A technique was developed for
detecting the presence of an air leak from the outside environment into this
evacuated region. These tanks are roughly 70 ft (≈21
m) in diameter (outer shell) and the inner shell is roughly 62 ft (≈19 m) in diameter, so the evacuated region is about 4 ft (≈1 m) wide.
A small leak’s primary effect is to increase
the boil-off of the tank. It was preferable to install a more accurate fill
level sensor than to implement a boil-off meter. The fill level sensor would be
composed of an accurate pair of pressure transducers that would essentially
weigh the remaining liquid hydrogen. This upgrade, allowing boil-off data to be
obtained weekly instead of over several months, is ongoing, and will then
provide a relatively rapid indication of the presence of a leak. Source
Modular,
Rapid Propellant Loading System/Cryogenic Testbed
The Cryogenic Test Laboratory (CTL) at Kennedy Space Centre
(KSC) has de-signed, fabricated, and installed a modular, rapid
propellant-loading system to simulate rapid loading of a launch vehicle
composite or standard cryogenic tank. The system will also function as a
cryogenic testbed for testing and validating cryogenic innovations and ground
support equipment (GSE) components. The modular skid-mounted system is capable
of flow rates of liquid nitrogen from 3.8 to 3,400 lit/min, of pressures from ambient to 1.5 MPa, and of temperatures
to –195 °C. The system can be easily validated to flow liquid
oxygen at a different location, and could be easily scaled to any particular
vehicle interface requirements.
This innovation is the first phase of development of a
smart Simulated Rapid Propellant Loading (SRPL) system that can be used at
multiple sites for servicing multiple vehicle configurations with varying
interface flow, temperature, and pressure requirements. The SRPL system can
accommodate cryogenic components from 0.6 to 20 cm and larger, and a variety of pneumatic
component types and sizes. Temperature, pressure, flow, quality, and a variety
of other sensors are also incorporated into the propellant system design along
with the capability to adjust for the testing of a multitude of sensor types
and sizes.
The system has three modules (skids) that can be placed at
any launch vehicle site (or mobile), and can be connected with virtually any
length of pipe required for a complete propellant load- ing system. The modules
include a storage area pump skid (located near the storage tank and a dump
basin), a valve control skid (located on or near the launch table to control
flow to the vehi- cle, and to return to the tank or dump basin), and a vehicle
interface skid (lo- cated at the vehicle). The skids are fully instrumented
with pressure, temperature, flow, motor, pump controls, and data acquisition
systems, and can be con- trolled from a control room, or locally from a PDA
(personal digital assistant) or tablet PC.
This work was done by ASRC Aerospace Corp., for Kennedy Space Centre.
Researchers test zero-gravity surgery device
George Pantalos tests a prototype of a surgical device designed to >
aid surgery during space missions
Zero-gravity surgeryThe device: The aqueous immersion surgical system is an airtight and watertight dome or structure with surgical ports that would be attached to the wound or surgical site and filled with saline.
How it works: Surgery in zero gravity could be conducted through the ports, keeping blood and fluid from filling the spacecraft’s cabin. In addition, the pressure of the solution can be controlled to stop bleeding.
What’s next: Researchers hope to use this week’s test results to gain NASA funding to study and develop the device further.
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What happens when astronauts are hurtling toward Mars on a years-long space voyage and one is injured, requiring emergency surgery in a environment lacking gravity?
It may sound like science fiction, but it’s one of the challenges NASA faces in its goal of putting astronauts on Mars by 2035. And it has spurred a University of Louisville researcher to test a potentially lifesaving surgical device aimed at helping make zero-gravity surgery possible.
George Pantalos, a professor of surgery and bioengineering, and colleagues from Carnegie Mellon University are conducting four days of tests this week in Houston aboard a NASA zero-gravity jet known as the “vomit comet,” which flies in gut-churning parabolic arcs to generate 20 to 30 seconds of weightlessness.
They’re testing prototypes of an “aqueous immersion surgical system” — an airtight and watertight dome with surgical ports that would be filled with saline and surround a wound in a zero-gravity environment. The idea is to stop bleeding and contain fluids that would otherwise float through the spacecraft, potentially endangering the patient and crew.
To test the concept, the researchers used plastic containers inside a prenatal care box. The researchers, held in place by foot straps, successfully controlled artificial blood coursing through a simulated vein Tuesday. On Wednesday, they conducted a simulated surgical procedure on a pig’s heart.
“We’re grateful that it turned out so well,” Pantalos said by phone Tuesday night from Ellington Field at the Johnson Space Center Reduced Gravity Program, adding that he hopes the device eventually could be used in other challenging environments, such as war zones.
Pantalos, 60, is working on the device with Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Mellon bioengineering researchers James Antaki, Jennifer Hayden and James Burgess.
Although the United States has retired its space shuttle program, President Barack Obama in 2010 announced that his goal is to have a manned flight reach an asteroid by 2025 and Mars by the mid-2030s, a round-trip mission likely to take several years.
Interest in Mars has grown recently with NASA’s successful landing of the Curiosity rover, which landed on the red planet in August after an eight-month journey.
Pantalos is one of many researchers working on the challenges of extended space travel. Those include health care concerns, such as the rapid loss of bone density, wounds that heal slowly in space and the possibility of having to do medical procedures using remote-controlled robots.
“NASA is looking at all the stuff they need to develop over the next 10 to 15 years to get ready for long-duration missions,” Hayden said.
Her team’s device has no NASA funding, but the agency is helping by allowing them to use the zero-gravity aircraft.
Pantalos, attached to the University of Louisville’s Cardiovascular Innovation Institute, is a veteran of space flight research. He’s conducted tests on 28 weightless flights, in one instance developing a modified zero-gravity heart resuscitation procedure that is now part of astronaut training.
