Space Elevator: Difference between revisions

[[File:Nasa space-elevator-tm elev.jpg|framethumb|400px|Going up...]]

The best materials science we have today tells us that the only known material with a high enough strength-to-weight ratio would be carbon nanotube cable. We so far don't have the ability to manufacture it in the lengths needed. Other theoretical methods include dynamic-support, essentially a stream of magnetized bullets whose momentum pushes up the cable. The idea is surprisingly plausible from a physics standpoint, is judged as medium-hard on the [[Mohs Scale of Sci Fi Hardness|Mohs Scale]], and would, once the construction cost was paid off, reduce the cost of putting payloads into orbit. [[Arthur C. Clarke (Creator)|It's been said]] that we could have a working space elevator about 50 years after everyone stopped laughing. Most of them have.

These are sometimes known as "beanstalks", after ''[[Jack and Thethe Beanstalk]]''.

** In ''[[Dirty Pair (Light Novel)|Dirty Pair]] Flash'', they also have an orbital ring to which the elevators connect at the top.

* ''[[Tekkaman Blade (Anime)|Tekkaman Blade]]'' goes one step further, with an entire orbital ''ring''.

* ''[[Kurau Phantom Memory]]'' has a space elevator to facilitate travel between Earth and a moon colony.

* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]''. Space elevator infrastructure is a major part of the backstory, and every global superpower has one of its own. In fact, whether or not a country or a union has access to one of these determines whether they're considered developing or developed. All three are connected to and serve as the distribution network for the power supplied by an artificial ring of solar energy collectors that encircle Earth and serves as the basis for the energy needs of the 24th century.<br />Aeolia Schenberg, the primary founder of Celestial Being, was a major contributor to the space elevator network, and even used his contacts with the many scientific communities at the time {{spoiler|to form an [[Ancient Conspiracy]], the objective of which was to gain technological superiority over the forming global status quo, even coopting a ''mission to Jupiter'' to ensure that their technological edge was maintained.}} Even the [[Humongous Mecha]] of the series were initially developed to defend the elevators from terrorist attacks and military intervention. (Supplementary materials describe [[Humongous Mecha]] which are basically normal units turned into elevator compartments, with their chassis attached to long cables which drag them to wherever on the thousand kilometers of elevator they are required to be.)<br />The series also makes a point out of how incredibly fragile such a structure would be. ''Nobody'' wants to fight around those things since even the slightest damage could cause the whole structure to collapse (and leave a third of the world without electrical power). {{spoiler|Naturally, in the proud Gundam tradition of [[Colony Drop|dropping large objects onto Earth]], one of the towers is damaged late in the series and is forced to jettison its outer shell in order to remain upright and balanced. The damage from the millions of tons of falling debris is nothing short of devastating.}}

* ''[[Zone of the Enders]]''''|Zone of the Enders: DelorisDolores, i]]'' has a space elevator built on Earth, and is the main mechanism by which goods and people are shuttled to and from the surface of the planet. It features heavily in some episodes, and is a critical part of the plot in the later part of the series.

* [[Arthur C. Clarke (Creator)]]

** He did not invent the idea, but his novel ''[[The Fountains of Paradise]]'' was among the first to promote the concept to the general public.

** The final sequel to ''[[Two Thousand and One2001: A Space Odyssey]]'' (''3001: The Final Odyssey'') features not one, not two, but ''four'' space elevators (one each in Africa, South America, Indonesia, and the Pacific) connected by a ring. {{spoiler|Built of Jupiter's diamond core that got blown to bits when the planet became a tiny star in ''2010''.}}

* In ''[[Discworld (Literature)/The Science of Discworld|The Science of Discworld]]'' books, humanity will eventually build a whole network of space elevators.

* ''[[Old MansMan's War]]'' by [[John Scalzi]] has a space elevator. Its center of mass is too low to be physically reasonable; this is used as an indication that the Colonial Union, who built it, is hiding technology up its sleeve.

* Robert L. Forward's various books often feature these.

** ''[[DragonsDragon's Egg (Literature)|Dragons Egg]]'' and ''Starquake'' feature aliens living on a neutron star who, after getting help from orbiting human astronauts in kick-starting a scientific revolution, rapidly advance literally overnight to building space elevators of a variety of types.

* The Great Glass Elevator enters space in ''Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator'' (the sequel to ''[[Charlie and Thethe Chocolate Factory]]''), though not on a cable. It uses a cable with "skyhooks". One end is hooked to the elevator, the other to... [[Look Behind You!|Hey! Look!]] A [[We Need a Distraction|convenient distraction]]!

* In the ''[[Wing Commander (Literaturenovel)|Wing Commander]]'' novel ''Action Stations'', recounting the initial events of the Terran-Kilrathi war the [[Mega Neko|Kilrathi]] target, as part of their attack on the Confederation base at McAuliffe (Pearl Harbor [[In Space]]), the skyhook that supports the base, using {{spoiler|torpedoes with the newly developed capability of bypassing the massive shielding on bases and capital warships, against which fighters were otherwise mostly useless, relegating them to scouting or other supporting roles}}.

* In [[John C. Wright]]'s ''[[The Golden Oecumene (Literature)|Golden Age]]'' trilogy, there is a space elevator on Earth. [[Meaningful Name|Phaethon]] zooms up the space elevator {{spoiler|after getting back his spiffy armor, to face his trial.}} On his return from the spoiler, since he {{spoiler|was exiled from the Golden Oecumene, he has to take the long way down. The stairs.}}

* In a short story by [[Iain Banks|Iain M. Banks]], terrorists give the protagonist a powerful [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens|Culture]] -- built—built handgun that only he can use, and try to blackmail him into taking out a government target with it. While contemplating what the weapon is capable of, the protagonist imagines using it to destroy the planet's [[Space Elevator]], trying to picture the resulting destruction and idly wondering whether it would come crashing to the ground or simply spin off into space.

* A space elevator enables the premise of Frank Schätzing's novel ''[[Limit (Literature)|Limit]]''. (Which is: The worthwhile mining for Helium-3 on the moon.)

* The ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' episode "Rise" has Tuvok and Neelix trapped on a space elevator.

* The TV speculative documentary titled ''2057'', predicts several of these by, well, [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|2057]]. Unfortunately, they screw it up by [[Critical Research Failure|placing the base station only 300 kilometers up]]. Even more bizarre as they had a prominent phyicist (Michio Kaku) as host.

* The ''[[Twenty Three Hundred2300 AD]]'' [[Tabletop RPG]] had the "Beanstalk" adventure, which involved a [[Space Elevator]] on the planet Beta Canum Venaticorum.

* A ''[[Shadowrun]]'' supplement had several [[Mega Corp|Mega Corps]]s planning to build a Space Elevator atop Mt. Kilimanjaro, over objections of some of the most powerful nature spirits in Africa.

* ''[[Mega Man X]] 8'''s problems eventually revolve around a Space Elevator. Sort of. As is typical for a Mega Man game, an entire level is built around riding the Space Elevator to the top. Oddly enough, the writer's couldn't seem to figure out exactly ''what'' they wanted their [[Space Elevator]] to be. In the opening intro, it's depicted as some kind of tubular, spiraling roadway, with car-type vehicles driving up and down the outside of the tube (one explodes and falls into the park, setting off the story). Later, X, Zero and Axl take an ''actual'' elevator up to the top, which takes about five ''minutes'' and involves enemies dropping in from ''above'', when any movement inside an actual elevator would be difficult due to zero-g and the fact that the car would have to be ''sealed''...

* In ''[[Xenosaga (Video Game)|Xenosaga]]'' we see an Orbital Elevator over the planet of Fifth Jerusalem.

* ''[[F -Zero|F-Zero GX]]'' has a track set on a space elevator, Cosmo Terminal: Trident. It's particularly difficult as it is a network of three paths, none of which have safety railings. For the first two laps the track is constantly moving upwards, providing a disorienting background to distract you, and only on the final lap does the elevator reach the spaceport at the top.

* In ''[[Civilization]] 4'' the Space Elevator is a wonder you can build, which boosts by half production on space ship parts required to win the [[Sid MeiersMeier's Alpha Centauri|Alpha Centauri]] victory.

* It is also a Secret Project in ''[[Sid MeiersMeier's Alpha Centauri]]'' ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zws0V6Kre5I the movie for which] provides the page quote), which doubles the energy (i.e. [[Energy Economy|cash flow]]) at the base you build it at, doubles the speed with which all your bases can build orbital improvements (satellites and space installations that give your whole faction benefits), and lifts the requirement that any base building an orbital improvement have an Aerospace Complex. Since orbital improvements are pretty darn awesome (Orbital Hydroponics Stations give each base +1 Nutrients to grow faster; Orbital Power Transmitters give you +1 extra Energy per base, potentially giving you loads of cash; Nessus Mining Stations give you +1 Minerals per base, letting you build stuff faster; and Orbital Defense Pods give you a 50% chance of stopping [[Nuke'Em|Planet Busters]]), provided you haven't [[Gaia's Vengeance|pissed off Planet too much]], so this is kind of a big deal.

* In ''[[Halo]] 2'', the New Mombassa [[Space Elevator]] is destroyed when Regret's Assault Carrier enters slipspace within the city itself. In ''Halo 3'', the Master Chief must fight his way along a highway in the same region, around which scattered bits of the elevator can be seen. One Marine mentions it's scattered over East Africa.

* ''[[LataleLa Tale]]'' has the Bifrost map, which is called a space elevator, though instead of riding an actual elevator up, you have to climb the entire thing.

* In ''[[Dystopia (Videovideo Gamegame)|Dystopia]]'', there are five space elevators located on or very near the equator, and four of them are the traditional kind. However, one of those is anchored to Atlantis, a ''free floating'' city in the Atlantic Ocean. It has yet to be explained how the elevator maintains geosynchronous orbit.

* In ''[[Sonic Colors (Video Game)|Sonic Colors]]'', this is how Eggman's [[Amusement Park of Doom]] is accessed. This being a ''Sonic'' game, of course, you eventually [[Escape Sequence|descend]] [[Rule of Cool|on foot.]]

* The world of ''[[Syndicate (Video Game)|Syndicate]] Wars'' has one in Colombo, Sri Lanka, a [[Shout-Out]] to [[Arthur C. Clarke (Creator)]] who lived there. You [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twl1TC-LupM take a ride on it] in the final missions.

* In [[Refle XRefleX]] the boss fight against Scorpio takes place in one of these, while climbing.

* The last part of ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000: Space Marine (Video Game)|Warhammer 40000 Space Marine]]'' happens atop the base of one.

* ''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]'' features one on Luna (The Moon). It is destroyed as a result of the Partnership Collective's sabotage of the Toughs' first flagship, causing a massive amount of damage. Theand Earthwould courtscause decidedfar tomore ''inflict''if equalgone damageas onplanned. When the grouplawyer ofdrones conscience-lessrefuse lawyerto dronespay --for andit, gave athe contractlocal court decided to go for punitive damages and gave Tagon's Toughs a contract to destroy one million of them. Cue a [[Running Gag]] -- a snake with tie will die.

* [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/43.html This] ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' shows a problem with space elevator: two days of elevator music.

* ''[[Xkcd (Webcomic)|Xkcdxkcd]]''

** A later one illustrates a [http://xkcd.com/697/ rather severe setback] in such an elevator's grand opening.

* In the backstory of ''[[Drow TalesDrowtales]]'', the Val'Nabhan'veaka clan of Chel'el'sussoloth essentially wanted to build one of those, though instead of to space it went to the Surface from the Underworld. Unfortunately, the Skyhole collapsed during construction and set off a series of [[Disaster Dominoes]] that continue to resound in the present day.

* ''[[Westward (Webcomicwebcomic)|Westward]]'' uses a space elevator in place of [[Space Plane|Space Planes]]s or [[Teleporters and Transporters]] as a means of travel between the titular [[Cool Starship]] and a planet's surface. The elevator is portable -- it is carried around by the starship, deployed at a planet as needed, then pulled up and stored on board again for the next trip. Needless to say it breaks some rules of physics and engineering (though no more so than [[Star Trek|transporters and shuttlecraft]], perhaps) but it provides a unique alternative with an "analog" feel, which was the author's stated purpose for it.

* In ''[[The Pentagon War (Literature)|The Pentagon War]]'', the bigger asteroids in the Human-Centauri star system have space elevators to ferry cargo and passengers from the space stations to the surface. They can get away with it because the surface gravity of these asteroids is only 0.5%-1% of Earth's, so the elevator cables won't snap under their own weight.

* ''[[Centurions (Animation)|Centurions]]'' has one, but it's set up more as a train, rather sensibly, as the ride is looong.

* Some people have stopped laughing. There is a growing group of enthusiasts and scientists, [https://web.archive.org/web/20210608200025/http://www.isec.info./ ISEC], working on it and a full-blown annual [https://web.archive.org/web/20200813050605/http://www.spaceelevatorconference.org/ conference].