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2026-09-02 Science & Technology

First ‘space elevator' ‐ a 66,000-mile cable to the cosmos‐ closer than ever before as scientists make breakthrough

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Posted by Skidmark 2026-09-02 00:00|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [267 views ] Top

1
Some readers here might remember actually holding a paperback book and reading ScFi stories from years ago.

One was about such an Space Elevator and the disaster it caused.
Here is short U-tube video example

In short, the safest location is, a island 500+ miles from anywhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Posted by NN2N1 2026-09-02 07:26|| 2026-09-02 07:26|| Front Page Top

2 Ah yes ...

“The beauty is that raising it with electricity saves our atmosphere from pollution, it doesn’t leave any debris along the way and it will be routine, daily, inexpensive, safe. It’s gonna be a bridge to space.”

All that clean electricity that comes from nowhere, generated magically without coal, gas or the raw materials in solar cells. Wonderful. /sarc

Posted by ChicagoNorth 2026-09-02 08:48|| 2026-09-02 08:48|| Front Page Top

3 Pillar to the Sky
Forstchen, William R.

A space elevator is an interesting idea. As usual, the devil is in the details. And the failure modes.

Posted by SteveS 2026-09-02 09:17|| 2026-09-02 09:17|| Front Page Top

4 All that clean electricity that comes from nowhere

[AI]
shuttle tether experiment

The most prominent shuttle tether experiment was the **Tethered Satellite System (TSS)** program, a joint venture between **NASA** and the **Italian Space Agency (ASI)** designed to study the electrodynamics of a conducting tether moving through Earth's magnetic field. The program consisted of two primary missions: **TSS-1** on STS-46 (1992) and **TSS-1R** on STS-75 (1996).

**TSS-1 (STS-46, 1992)**
* **Objective:** Deploy a 1.8-meter diameter satellite 250 meters from the Space Shuttle *Atlantis* on a 20 km conducting tether to verify gravity gradient stabilization and plasma electrodynamics.
* **Outcome:** The mission achieved only partial success; the tether deployment mechanism jammed, preventing full extension, though useful data on tether dynamics was collected.

**TSS-1R (STS-75, 1996)**
* **Objective:** Reflight the system on the Space Shuttle *Columbia* to deploy the satellite 19.7 km (12.2 miles) away to generate electricity and study ionospheric interactions.
* **Outcome:** The experiment was highly successful scientifically but ended in failure during retrieval. After deploying 19.7 km and generating **3,500 to 5,000 volts**, the tether snapped due to an electrical arc caused by plasma formed from trapped air bubbles in the insulation. The satellite and the broken tether drifted away from the shuttle and were lost.

**Key Findings and Legacy**
* **Power Generation:** The experiments demonstrated that electrodynamic tethers could generate significant voltage and current, with TSS-1R producing currents up to 480 milliamps.
* **Failure Analysis:** The breakage in STS-75 highlighted critical challenges with tether insulation and plasma physics in low Earth orbit, specifically how high voltages can ionize trapped gases, leading to short circuits.
* **Scientific Value:** Despite the loss of the payload, the missions provided invaluable data on space plasma, ionospheric electric fields, and the behavior of long conductors in orbit, informing future concepts for tether-based propulsion and power systems.

Posted by Skidmark 2026-09-02 11:29|| 2026-09-02 11:29|| Front Page Top

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