See also: Research paper topic idea lists for students

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The Task

The task here is to find a potential pathway to utilize the vast resources of nearby space to provide long term high quality life for mankind while also restoring the Earth's ecosystem to a long term balanced state. Mankind seems to consider its fears for the future to be based on overpopulation, causing resource depletion and toxification of the ecosystem. Nearby space resources have the potential for enabling mankind to overcome each of these things, yet the enormous amount of fuel consumption required to conventionally lift even a few people to orbit, seems to suggest that space resource access at best would be for a mere priveledged few, and in the distant future, no solution for impending crisis' forseen today. And the intertia of civilization, its intimitely interwoven business socioeconomic systems, has little resiliency to any large change that might constructively approach solution of those widespread fears, for the near future survival of mankind and the ecosystem. So the task expands to include the technological basis for fully enmeshing civilization's resource base with the vast resources of nearby space, economically and of adequate capacity, before critical resources are depleted, such as the precious petrochemicals now merely burned up to produce energy, and do it within the framework of existing socioeconomic systems in the near 20 year timeframe.

The Approach

Thankfully, humans are incredibly resilient and resourceful. But typically few people today are aware that already there are two very different sets of potential technologies that could soon economically tie the Earth's resources intensively to the resources of nearby areas of space, if only we would actually begin to develop and use them. These are two kinds of electrically operated transportation systems interconnecting the ground, the Earth's surface, to high earth orbit. These might be considered to be "space elevator" or "space rail" transportation systems, yet each of them function quite differently, are shaped very differently, and have different transportation capabilities and natures. Both need full development and construction for use as rapidly as possible, to meet that so very essential task. Otherwise, nature will take its course without mankind's intelligent imaginatively creative resourceful responsible action starting soon.

The First Technique

One of these forms of transportation systems is based on an anchored tether concept whose weight is balanced to each side of GEO, just hanging in place once there; and as the Earth rotates the tether is swung outward by centrifugal force which provides the force supporting the weight of the tether with its loads. This idea has been re-invented by many people (including this author, about 1969) , but was originally published in the early 1960's by Artsutanov, but only in the past two years has a material potentially strong enough for the tether has been developed and a detailed transportation system utilizing this concept was proposed, in 2002, by Brad Edwards in Space 2002 Robotics 2002, published by ASCE.

The Second Technique

The other of these forms of transportation systems, which is the one that is the basic theme of this website, is based on the use of kinetic energy stored within a structure, for both supporting the structure's enormous weight and for delivering lift energy throughout the extent of the structure for continuously lifting payload and vehicles between ground and space. It is a space rail transportation system called KESTS, an acronym for "Kinetic Energy Supported Transportation Structure". It was first proposed in 1989 via a computer network, frequently expanded and improved, published as a peer reviewed technical paper by Jim Cline in Space 2000, and an expanded paper published two years later in the same Space 2002 Robotics 2002 , conference procedings published by ASCE.

KESTS Would Lift Vehicles Between Ground and GEO, as a Giant Earth-Encircling Electric Motor With Two Kinds of Intercoupled Armatures

KESTS is like an enormous perimeter electric motor with two coupled armatures, the axel around which it rotates is the planet's gravitational field, and the bearings are maglev tracks within the motor's stator. Electric power is input to the motor, where one of the kinds of armatures is electrically driven as it continuously passes the Earth sutrface through the ground terminal (perhaps located in a tunnel through the Andes mountain range in Ecuador) and is electromagnetically driven so hard that this armature mass stream exceeds Orbital Transfer Velocity sufficiently to provide the excess centrifugal force adequate to support the weight of the motor's earth-stationary stator structure with its live loads. The upward-bound portions of these armatures also electromagnetically couple momentum over to the other armature type, thus continuously lifting vehicles between ground and GEO. The perimetric motor is so big that it completely encircles the planet and is stretched out elliptically on one side so high that it reaches up to GEO, the place in space that exactly matches the ground motion of the rotating Earth, where it continuously deposits its payload. The continuous transportation nature of this system would enable an incredible transportation capacity of people and goods, early useable to build Solar Powerplants in GEO for powering the transportation system and delivering abundant inexpensive clean electric power for civilization on the ground. And the enabled applications expand enormously from there, including the building of solar powered total recycling plants in GEO and the lift of toxic wastes for processing there, the lifting of giant spacecraft to GEO for launch toward other places in the Solar System, and creation of a huge orbiting ring of space settlements of designs much as earlier envisioned in the 1970's for use at L-5, except directly connected to the ground via this type of spacerail system, the first ones built of construction materials brought up by the KESTS to GEO.

• The expected basic benefits of near future space elevators: high capacity, economical, reliable transportation between earth surface and high earth orbit, which is free of the upcoming chemical propulsion energy source depletion effects.
  • With petrochemical production peaking in 5 years, the massive chemical energy required to conventionally lift things and people to orbit will become a major concern.
  • Alternative future options for civilization if sufficient space elevators do not happen quickly enough.
• KESTS to GEO: Space Elevator conceptual designs which utilize stored kinetic energy within structures to both support the structure between ground and space, and to deliver lift energy to vehicles traveling between ground and space
  • History of concepts related to energy-strengthened structures for transportation systems
    • History of this author's (J E D Cline's) efforts related to space elevator transportation systems
  • Creating a sliding armature energy-momentum transfer technology base
  • Construction techniques for building KESTS to GEO
  • Applications enabled by space elevators to GEO, particularly by KESTS to GEO
• Anchored tether type space elevator technology
• An exciting tether-type Space Elevator recent proposal by Bradley Edwards, utilizing carbon nanotube matrix ribbon tether material, for a near future heavy lift capability to GEO and beyond: http://www.niac.usra.edu/files/library/fellows_mtg/jun01_mtg/pdf/521Edwards.pdf
  • Exploring some variations on use of that technology
• Comparison between tether-type and KESTS-type earth space elevator conceptual design attributes
• Technological requirements are not the greatest obstacles to space elevator implementation, it is the lack of human urge to make it happen as part of today's business system.
  • Space Elevators fitting into the corporate business system
  • How to get people to work cooperatively toward great mutual goals, instead of fighting over scraps
  • Amplifying human capacity to function well

• Explore here new kinds of transportation systems, adequate for the needs of a maturing mankind, responsible to life. Such new catagories of transportation systems linking ground to high Earth orbit would enable the following:

• Enable abundant electrical energy, the ability to do work, made widely available economically around the world, could be gathered in space by SSPS and delivered to electrical power grids in every nation. Cheap energy takes the place of slave labor of humans and draft animals. Fossil fuel reserves need to be kept for future uses as petrochemicals for making things, not mere burning for energy purposes. Here are potential transportation systems adequate to enable all the clean, renewable electrical power the world's growing civilization needs.

• Enable total recycling of the toxic waste products of civilization, those waste products mankind makes which nature cannot recycle and are toxic to man and the world ecosystem, continue to accumulate and spread around the planet, no conventional means in sight for their processing. Provide the transportation adequate to enable a powerful new way to totally recycle industrial waste products, even the worst of them, waste materials that nature cannot handle.

• Provide highly efficient lift of spacecraft to large scale spaceport facilities in GEO for reaching out to raw construction materials of the Moon and asteroids, and the moons of other planets close by.

• Mankind is a great builder of living space, at the best when completely building homes, agricultural systems, manufacturing facilities to optimum specs. So we now can again think about building those large scale passively shielded large scale space habitats envisioned in detail in the mid-1970's, except built in GEO initially from materials lifted from the ground, easy, and potentially very near-future.

• Think very high capacity, continuous, efficient, economical, reliable transportation between the Earth's surface and high earth orbit....

Space elevator technology is here now, and the good news is that there is now more than one way to do it; and that if we were willing, we could start to do it today while we still have the Earth energy resources to do so.

The bad news is that we obviously still believe that preservation of our way of life lies in triumphant conflict - - both war-like and corporate-business-like - - instead of pitching in together to effectively explore these powerful new ways for providing the energy resources, environmental health, and vast room to grow for our mutual high quality sustainable futures.

It may seem to some that a "space elevator" extending up from the ground all the way to orbit in space, is a total impossibility, considering the highest we now can now build a building. Yet recent advances in technology have prepared the way to make space elevators a strong near future possibility, and the great news is that now there is more than one way to do it, by developing certain existing technological bases.

Just in time, too, as civilization really needs heavy duty economical reliable continuous access to high earth orbit, starting yesterday... this is needed to provide the immense electrical energy required to power a high level civilization extended now worldwide; is getting desperately needed to enable the total recycling of the enormous accumulating toxic wastes of civilization that nature is not equipped to deal with; and sooner than one would think, will be needed for vast room to grow, such as in highly self-sufficient man-made comfortable homes built in high earth orbit, like the ones envisioned in the mid-1970's for use except then at L-4 and L-5 instead of at GEO.

Is mankind really up to this task? Will we stop compulsively fighting over scraps, and then responsibly turn to working together for mankind's longrange tasks, before either resource depletion or toxin accumulation win the race to close the curtain on mankind's show? Your choice!

Just "don't get it"? Check KESTS to GEO for Beginners

Please comment to jedcline@kestsgeo.com or jedcline@earthlink.net