A Tether in Space
One of the greatest unrequited legends of outer space is the tether. Tethers, long strands of material, hold the promise of stabilizing satellites, generating electricity, and allowing easy transportation. Possibly the most ambitious vision of the space tether is the space elevator popularized by Arthur C. Clarke, where a tether is constructed that connects the ground to geosynchronous orbit.
One problem is strength - it is difficult to make a long useful tether that does not snap. Pictured here is the deployment of the Tethered Satellite System 1 (TSS-1) by the space shuttle Altantis in 1992. Like other tested tethers, TSS-1 failed to live up to its promise, although many valuable lessons were learned.
Image & info via APOD
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit: TSS-1, STS-46 Crew, NASA
#universe #space #NASA #science #TSS1
I initially though carbon nanotubes could be a solution, but it seems not. To weak if there is just an atom or two out of place, or to put it in other terms, a 'kink'.
ReplyDeletenewscientist.com - Carbon nanotubes too weak to get a space elevator off the ground/
Maybe something involving graphene, or some kind of alloy. I can imagine one day having power station satellites, capturing solar energy and tethers could maybe be used to offload the collected energy, rather than microwaves