Preface

This manuscript is the result of a six-month investigation I conducted for NASA under the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. Even though this is the final report for that study, it is really just the beginning.

The study had the same simple title as this manuscript, The Space Elevator. The study itself was far from simple however. The object was to investigate all aspects of the construction and operation of a space elevator, a concept that up until this time had been confined to the realm of science fiction.

The first chapter will give an overview of the space elevator concept and hopefully put everything in context. I have tried to write it such that the reader is not required to have a degree in physics to understand it. However, I am sure there are unavoidable references and notations that will be new to some readers. In these cases please check the definitions section at the back of the book for assistance (Some of these unavoidable references I have marked with a "B&D" so you will remember to look in the Basics and Definitions section). References, and there are many, will appear as small superscript numbers. These refer to the list of previous work in the back of the book that much of this study is based on.

The chapters following the first will address individual technical components of a space elevator and the challenges that come along with building and operating such a system. Unfortunately, all of the various aspects of the space elevator are interwoven. Each component is affected by the design of the others and each new challenge to the survival or operation of the space elevator has repercussions throughout the entire system. The fallout is that the technical chapters will reference each other extensively including chapters later in the manuscript. I apologize for this and hope it won't deter any interested readers. For those of you who enjoy science fiction, future technologies, and challenges I hope this technical work will spark your interest. For those of you who are pragmatic and down-to-earth, examine the details of this work and I hope it will convince you that there is an interesting development on our horizon.

I must also add that this manuscript covers only the technical aspects of building a space elevator. No political aspects are considered here.

Acknowledgement of Support

And now as I begin the technical assault on the space elevator I would like to acknowledge the support that has made this study possible. As I mentioned already, the funding for this work came from the NIAC. This is one of the more futuristic concepts that NIAC (or any part of NASA) supports and I hope that this work will be a worthy return on their investment.

In addition I would like to thank many of my colleagues and friends for their helpful discussions especially: Bennett Link (Montana Univ.) and Carla Riedel (Montana State), Hal Bennett (Compower), Hui-Ming Cheng, Bob Fugate (Starfire Optical Observatory), Mike Edwards (Motorola), Richard Epstein (LANL), Brad Cooke (LANL), Bob Roussell-Dupre (LANL), Carl Sloan and Ted Stern (Composite Optics), Larry Mattson (TRW), Paul Emberly (Kvaerner), Eureka Scientific, Ronald Doctors, David Vaniman (LANL), Jim Distel (LANL), Mervyn Kellum Jr. (LANL) and Katherine Gluvna.