Weird space ideas.

[ZenRaiden]

So anyway, ever since I read the book from Asimov, where he remarked that space is only few hours ride away on car, it got me thinking. If a car can reach space virtually in few hours, anything like a rocket would be pointless if we could do it cheaper. Now obviously there was the idea that I read from Michio Kaku who mentioned elevators to space as an idea as well. Though I do not know if these ideas were really theirs to begin with, but they mentioned them in their books.

We know for example we can get pretty high up with hydrogen balloons. Now if a small space craft like a shuttle could be taken up into the higher altitudes with a balloon you could save up some fuel right.
Well after you get to the altitude with lot less friction since the air density is much lower you can launch a pretty light weight shuttle into space. I am not sure if anyone did calculations for this idea, but essentially that could possibly work provided that the balloon takes it up higher than usual.

Now the balloon won't go high up that much, according to website I just looked up it goes only 32 km up which cuts the density of air down pretty well, since most of the rocket fuel is used up at the start anyway.
Question is would the balloon go even higher provided that the shuttle would have some booster rockets to let the balloon go up higher. SO essentially the weight of the balloon would go down by boosters and let the balloon support some of the weight of the shuttle. That way the shuttle goes up to less dense atmosphere at which point it will launch it self using main rocket.

The other idea is to build a huge link to the moon. That means the moon has pretty stable orbit around Earth. So a huge rope with anchor to the moon would also be feasible. Essentially the rope would have a hook powered by solar energy to ferry cargo to the moon, where it would be landed. There would be a good cheap and safe way to build a moon base, slowly, but safely. Given that flying to the moon is long and quite dangerous mission with landing imagine you would have a large rope. The moon is far and the rope would have to be massive, but all to ferry stuff to the moon would be solar power.

 

[Rook]

Always love mah space elevators.

Problems: Structure--basically skyscraper x100 or whatever. Cheap manual labor not really an option, maybe drones? Anyway, unless you add one hell of a base and let it taper like the Eiffel Tower, this thing's gonna be wobbly. Super-tensile material stronger than steel maybe?
You'll have to be certain that seismic activity ain't gonna topple yer space needle(So maybe build it in the Karoo.)

Also take into account continental drift: where you gonna anchor it? Continents move slow af, so not sure on the science here, but probably in 50+ years this elevator is gonna start pulling away(Here I assume it's not linked to moon, but comes pretty close to its surface with a base positioned under it, waiting for exact moment of alignment, or a space station in earth orbit waiting for precise timeframe---linking it is another ball game entirely. Maybe the poles ideal for this, Antarctica? Gonna need a moving tower basically, guess you can send a shitload of rockets with building materials to da moon for cost of constructing such a complex system)

Balloons are light, but puncturable. Prime terrorist target, beware atmospheric anomalies(compared to weather balloons, these ones'll be carrying a heavy load). No sane astronaut is gonna fly in a blimp(I assume) so maybe A.I , remote piloting, or prison labor? If you got a cheap shuttle design and the savings u get from using balloons covers the losses of punctured ones and lost shuttles, makes sense long run ig. Or make shuttles capable of orbital entry if balloon pops, thus increasing weight and required size of balloon. And cost.

Cable tethered to a planet-spanning hoop seems good, send drones up its length with materials or personnel, constructor drones can start base.

But, as with spire, you'll need to factor this into air traffic/satellites AND you'll have to take lightning into account: will a lightning strike fuck up your elevator/short out yer drones?

If anti-grav tech is possible, having such an elevator which you can activate in ideal weather conditions, simply floating/catapulting things into the void, maybe with thrusters so they can land safely. Anti-grav tunnel linking planet and moon, basically.

Also: meteors. Even a fist-sized one can fuck up your shit, I'll say.

 

[EndogenousRebel]

Elevators would have to be giant to justify making them. Like the size of a football field. They'd be gian structures towering into the skies initially used for commercial purposes until we master the art of it for human safety.

That being said it would work like a catapult imo, where in the atmosphere there are machines the receive these catapulted packages and put them somewhere soundly. At least that seems like the most energy conserving thing to do, and seems very possible, balloons could work in this situation too.

 

[ZenRaiden]

I mean magnetic catapults or some form of maglev rail to launch shit into space should be doable.

 

[EndogenousRebel]

I think the biggest obstacle to this would be space trash, and it turning into a question of who owns outer space. Though maybe it could also be a deterrent to war of we can form agreements that benefit everyone. Not very many people can interact in space so the players would be obvious. Very open ended though, because we could commission technically anyone to operate it.