Although most people are too occupied with dealing with ongoing daily life necessities, thus letting the future take care of itself, please take a moment to explore a potential powerful option for the near future. Instead of continuing to crumble under resource entropy collapse of civilization, we could continue to grow abundantly while both restoring the ecosystem and while spreading the spark of life throughout our solar system. This could be made possible if a high capacity, high efficiency, inexpensive, electrically powered continuously operating transportation system connecting the ground with high earth orbit were available, so that the vast resources of the solar system would be within relativly easy reach by humanity. On this website's many pages, here's how, as derived by a free-thinker unbound by the option inertia of contemporary corporate business necessities ... (although somehow corporate business must be eventually brought into it, to make it happen.) Note two technical papers have now been formally presented and published on this concept, written by this author, in the peer-reviewed conference proceedings Space 2000 and in Space 2002 Robotics 2002, published by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

In the past, rocket propelled launch vehicles have proven that access to space is possible and useful; yet nearly all the energy consumed in a launch from ground to orbit is used to lift the weight of the fuel itself and to lift the huge vehicle needed to lift all that weight up from the ground. Rocket launch of payload from the ground to orbit is extremely inefficient, and energy will increasingly become scarce and costly, the way things are going.

Compare current launch energy consumption to the actual energy added to payload by lifting it from the ground up to high earth orbit, which is only 7.15 kWh per pound mass. This is only $0.72 per pound, at average cost of electrical power, for the energy added to payload by lifting its mass from the ground up to GEO.

Generalizing and integrating pioneering ideas of Loftstrom, Hyde, and Smith, adding to and expanding greatly upon them, here is a potential technique to use existing science and engineering technology to create an unorthodox electro-kinetic way to deliver energy to lift payload all the way along a path from the ground to high earth orbit, all electrically powered, described in detail here. Come explore the many sides to this conceptual design presented throughout this kestsgeo.com website, see for yourself; does it seem reasonable, what are its strong and weak points that you find?

This conceptual design is based upon a unique kind of theoretically possible transportation system: a multi-armature electromagnetic motor perimeter infilling an initially quasi-elliptical orbital transfer trajectory encircling the Earth between ground and GEO, the supra-orbital-velocity armature segments both centrifugally supporting the immense structure and also distributing lift energy for vehicles traveling between the Earth surface and Geostationary Earth Orbit. Abundant clean electrical power from SSPS then becomes feasable, solar powered total recycling of most toxic materials in giant mass spectrometers, and vast room for civilization to grow in passively shielded space colonies built in GEO, already 91% up out of earth's gravity well.

This is not the conventional way of existing aerospace corporations, so let's develop the concept afresh in our minds now, given the potential benefit of a major new technology's massive access between space and the earth's surface. Do cognitive processing by simplifying and observing functions, then filling in to compensate for the simplifications. Simplify by condition of no air between the ground and GEO, in the area of concern here; we will compensate for this later in the mental process. In this airless path, electromagnetically launch a stream of projectiles from the equator in the form of an Orbital Transfer Trajectory between R=1 (earth's radius) and R=6.6 (Geostationary Earth Orbital radius), cyclically returning to the earth contact point compensating for 24 hour rotation of the planet. Once launched in this airless path, the projectile stream would continue to circle the earth, spanning between the ground contact at the equator, extending up to GEO at its high point. Then

Note that this is not the site of a businessman. This is a site of a technologically-savvy Idealist, a Harmonizer-Clarifier, envisioning how existing science and technological concepts can be re-configured to enable a kind of transportation system that potentially could result in a tremendous expansion of humanity in the near future (if people were to choose to do so) while thereby also enabling the restoration of the Earth's surface ecosystem back to long term health. I'd really rather things get better, and this is my effort at doing that.

This is to provide some hope for the younger folk of today, for those who prefer to enjoy thriving exciting harmonious construction activities. Described here are reachable alternatives to an imploding civilization. The choice is yours, as will be the experiencing of the results of that choice.

Here are reachable technologies that, if wisely applied, have the potential of enabling a vast expansion of humanity into a lively comfortable enduring civilization, while taking mankind's crushing load off of the Earth's ecosystem so that it can be restored as much as possible back to long term thriving balance. An integrated socio-industrial technological design can be found among these pages, ready for your own unique development and application. The unique ground-to-high-earth-orbit extremely high capacity & efficiency transportation system's technological design, "KESTS to GEO", based on a multi-armature electromagnetic motor perimeter infilling an orbital transfer trajectory between ground and GEO, which is key to making this scenario possible, is described on this site in many ways.

• There are alternatives to ever-increasing mankind's strife over dwindling resources and accumulating wastes, with obviously only one ultimate result. One alternative is described in detail here, perhaps the one most fully able to provide the necessary vast adequate increases of energy/materials/space/recycling resources for the future.

• Mankind's unique talents could be used to once again build pathways to immense new resources of energy and living space.

• Refresh the mindset to use old principles in new arrangements to create major new capabilities.

• The principles used to build electric motors can be re-arranged and combined with aerospace technology to build spacerail transportation systems spanning between the ground and synchronous Earth orbit.

• Just as a limp rope becomes a semi-rigid hoop structure when spun into a centrifugally strengthened lasso, so potentially could spatially extensive structures assume strong rigid shapes with the ability to resist deformation by applied loads, due to electromechanically coupled armature segment kinetic energies circulating on evacuated maglev tracks at supra-orbital velocities within them, creating transportation structures of unique qualities and otherwise unattainable earth-circling spans. Combining the dynamics of electric servo controlled motor-generator stored energy functions with transportation bridging structure functions has the potential of a new class of near-future transportation structures of extraordinary potential applications, particularly interesting bridging between the Earth’s equator and GEO.

• There then could be built solar electric power sources abundantly, and facilities for totally recycling toxic wastes, and build immense rotating space settlements at long last, much closer than L-5.

• Calculate that the energy added to payload when lifting from ground to GEO is only 7.15kwh per pound mass, $0.72 worth of electricity. 16.7 kwh per killogram to GEO. That is 72 cents per pound to orbit, not ten thousand dollars per pound as it is in the way we do things now.

• We could start doing it now. We still do have a choice. Refresh your mind, your purposes, have fun being responsible for our future. Explore KESTS to GEO here!

For long term sustainability, a transportation system needs to bring back more than it consumes, particularly energy resources. Presently two very different kinds of Earth-to-space transportation concepts exist that meet these criteria: the anchored earth tether space elevator concept, and the kinetic energy supported transportation structure concept. They each have their unique sets of natures, strengths & weaknesses, and each appear ready for technology development starting with known scientific principles. The anchored tether space elevator concept has exised since 1960 and due to recent advances in potential tether materials technology it has received, since 2000, high profile attention from corporate, academic, and governmental sources. The kinetic energy supported transportation structures concept has existed since 1988, and still awaits attention from these necessary implementation resources. Publication of the KESTS to GEO concept has been done with whatever resources were available to the author during the years since his 1988 announcement of in on the GEnie computer network, and other than three formally published articles and technical papers, the web since 1996 has ben the primary effort to attract attention to the concept, this KESTSGEO website mainly, and earlier internet efforts from 1996 to the present time can be found at home.earthlink.net/~jedcline web pages.

The reader's input is requested, so as to integrate as many viewpoints into a cohesive whole before the concept is grasped and ripped apart by the many corporations getting their part of the profit pie; having a cohesive overall picture at the start hopefully will have prepared a pattern for the pieces to be reassembled back together again in time. Please send your early comments to the author, Jim Cline, at jedcline@kestsgeo.com or jedcline@earthlink.net for incorporation and acknowledgement on this site.

Link to earlier related pages

Comments to: jedcline@kestsgeo.com or jedcline@earthlink.net

The author ( J E D Cline) with the newly-published book: read " Kinetically Supported Bridge Vehicle Lift To GEO" starting on P. 8 of ASCE's "Space 2002 Robotics 2002".

Page updated 2003 02 07 by jedcline

Copyright © 2003 by J E D Cline