But for a moment let's completely open our options to ways of thinking about how to transport between the ground and earth orbit. An easily accessed, efficiently reached beachhead in earth orbit could be very useful, especially if in GEO. Imagine, what if there were a way to distribute the kinetic energy needed to lift a person to space, all along the path between the ground and orbital altitude space? Visualize a continuous stream of powerful kinetic energy in the form of high velocity mass streams circulating around the planet between the ground and earth orbital altitudes, able to electromagnetically share part of its immense stored circulating kinetic energy to lift a continuous stream of payload-carrying vehicles travelling along its path between the ground and orbital altitude space nearby.
Why make the effort to do this kind of thing? Consider what if this eventually leads to a way that a substantial part of our expanding civilization could be located comfortably and pleasantly high in earth orbit, in the relatively near future. Would that enable our civilization to continue to greatly expand while also taking the load off the earth's ecosystem which our civilization now imposes on the earth? And would we then choose to work to restore the planetary ecosystem back to a state of balanced long-term health? Read on for details, below this picture, and/or explore other files about in on my website here by clicking on the links.
Here is a possible way: the kinetic energy of a continuous stream of high velocity electric motor armature segments continuously circulating around the earth from the ground at the equator, reaching geosynchronous earth orbit at it upper height before continuing semi-elliptically on down around the other side of the planet to its earth terminal re-acceleration site again, in continuous pairs of contra-rotating streams of electromagnetically-coupled mass streams, could inductively couple part of its upward-bound-side's immense stored kinetic energy to vehicles traveling alongside it, thus avoiding the need for the vehicles to carry fuel.
These armature mass streams of this gigantic earth-encircling electric motor would travel in low friction magnetic levitation tracks along the underside of the giant electric motor's stator which provides the path between the equator and geosynchronous earth orbit, 22,300 miles above the opposite side of the planet. Contra-rotating armature mass streams provide upward-bound lift energy along both sides of the stator structure. The armature mass streams travel much faster than orbital velocity along the underside of the stator, the excess velocity in the altitude-constrained path providing an outward component of centrifugal force opposing the force of gravity on the stator structure, largely suppporting the structure and the live loads it carries to and from space.
Some of the high velocity kinetic energy of the armature mass streams is inductively tapped off by the vehicles travelling along the outer side of the stator structure, lifting them to space between the ground and GEO.
Electrical power on the ground inputs the energy to speed up the armature mass stream segments as they whizz past the equatorial site, electromagnetically thrusting against the mass of the earth to get back up to speed to compensate for the energy given off to support the structure and to lift vehicles to space along the way. Thus it is an electrically powered transportation system, as we postulated initially above. The maglev track system has the potential for extremely low friction, low wear, long life bearing surfaces, potentially lasting for centuries and longer if necesary.
Much of the sustaining electrical power to run the system can come from Solar Electric Power Satellites lifted by the transportation system itself to GEO, from where they can beam gigawatts of solar-electrical energy back down to near the equator re-accelleration terminal site, thus supplying its own power thereafter. And additional solar electric power satellites can beam down more energy to power civilization's electrical power needs, thereafter preserving our precious fossil petrochemicals for future materials applications.
Magnetic levitation bearings used by the armature mass streams during their endless circuits of the earth on the underside of the startor structure, and the magnetic levitation bearing on the top side of the structure in which the vehicles slide, are low friction very low wear bearing surfaces, potentially there for the centuries of use, potentially low maintenance and high reliability.
And as for the lift capacity being enormous, consider that the armature segments composing the mass streams, at exactly orbital velocity centrifugally balance their own weight along the path, and if going at twice the orbital velocity will support or lift a mass equal to their own, and if at three times orbital velocity along the path, can support twice their mass against the force of travity, or lift comparable mass to space while giving up some of their velocity to transfer kinetic energy to lift vehicles along the structure to space. It depends on the limits with which the magnetic levitation bearings can provide separation.
Yes, the length of the path around the earth and up to GEO on the farside is great, yet is quite small compared to the distance to the moon, and consider that if all the aluminum beverage cans we use per year were placed end to end they would reach to the moon and back, this structure is relatively small.
Building the earth-like, slowly spinning artificial-gravitied plush cities of homes in earth orbit is another part of the adventure. Although at first the construction materials would be brought up from the ground, these large space habitats would be built mostly from raw materials from the moon, eventually some from asteroid al materials and later yet from volatiles from the outer planets' moons. Plenty of raw material out there, just waiting to become part of robust living systems. The known asteroids alone, converted into such space habitats, would provide the surface area of 1,000 times the whole earth's land surface, if it were all used for this purpose.
Electrically commuting between the ground and GEO puts people at an energy level of 90% of the earth's so-called escape velocity. The earth's gravity well would no longer be the limiting factor in exchange between the earth surface ecosystem and the near part of the rest of the solar system. Bring in fresh raw materials, and dump unrecyclable nuclear materials and chemical toxins into the vast solar furnace that is our sun. And plenty of new living space in earth orbit, eventually more living room even further beyond.
The people-challenges are vastly more difficult than the technological challenges, in the effort to get this project going. (Read a chapter here in a science fiction story about it, which I am also writing.) If it is going to happen, people will need to make it happen.
And it is much easier for me and everybody else just to let each day slide, just get by day after day in an overpressured lifestyle, no new challenges invited. Life is difficult enough already, thank you, let the future take care of itself, it always has. And the technologies in this transportation system are far from the present-day beaten path, even far from the paths of contemporary innovation in space flight. This whole thing is "way out in left field" to use the old baseball terminology, as far as present day space industry is concerned. Nothing is going to happen on this project unless the majority of people desire it, and that is not happening yet: I put the framework of this concept on a public computer network in 1988, and have continued to spread the word since then every way I can, but I encountered only opposition and disdain, ignored despite my best efforts during the past dozen years; I submitted it to the RAND survey, then I formally presented it as a scientific paper at the May 1997 Space Studies Institute conference on space manufacturing, but they subsequently chose to reject it for publication in the conference procedings. I was not able to get it formally accepted by the scientific community in the form of a peer-reviewed, conference-presented published technical paper until March of this year ("Kinetically Strengthened Transportation Structures") at the "Space 2000" ASCE Conference on Space: it is not an aerospace industry vehicular spacecraft type of project, instead it can be catagorized as a Civil Engineering type of project since it is more like a bridge or electric railroad elevator construction project.
So, if you have any interest in such a project or happening for mankind
and our planetary ecosystem, I invite you to read on into the
more detailed technical descriptions here on my webpages. Along the
way you can find concepts for cheaply building a low-risk 200-1,000 person
research space habitat of the traditonal wheel-like design, but in low
earth orbit at first, to iron out the myriad man-machine interactive systems
upon which long term life in space would need in order to thrive. And explore
a ground commute system concept. And innovative transportation systems
from the moon to the earth or to earth orbit. Explore among the concepts,
pick and choose for your own recipie and see what you can cook up!
