Space elevators could totally shake things up by making space travel easier and cheaper than ever before. Picture skipping the pricey rocket fuel and just zipping up to space using electricity. It's not just about saving money – this could lead to a whole new era of space exploration and industry, with more satellites, space stations, and even space vacations on the horizon. Plus, it's eco-friendly compared to traditional rocket launches, which is a win for the planet. While there are still some big hurdles to clear, like building super-strong materials, the idea of space elevators is super exciting and could change the game for humanity's adventures beyond Earth.
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Animation is created by Bright Side.
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Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
Listen to Bright Side on:
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FunTranscript
00:00Traveling to space costs a fortune, but there's a way to make it affordable.
00:04You step into an elevator, push the button, and voila, you're flying to the stars, all
00:09thanks to nanotubes.
00:11But then something hits the elevator on the way, you're stuck inside, and now you're
00:16doomed to float in space forever.
00:19Now if you want to travel in space, get ready to shell out around 55 million bucks.
00:25But in the near future, you'll probably be able to travel to space with just the push
00:30of a button without breaking the bank.
00:32Because space elevators might come into play.
00:35While the idea of galactic lifts seems like something out of a sci-fi movie, it is a real
00:40possibility that could revolutionize space travel.
00:44With an estimated cost of $8 billion, space elevators could be a one-time investment that
00:50would last us forever.
00:54NASA alone spends around $2.7 million on rocket fuel per minute.
01:00To launch a rocket, they need to pay up to $178 million.
01:05These costs could be significantly reduced with the use of elevators.
01:10Most super-tall buildings on Earth have a massive foundation to help with their balance
01:14and weight.
01:15As you look up, they get thinner and thinner.
01:18Even the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, is massive at the bottom and
01:23narrow at the top.
01:24If we wanted to construct something like a gigantic lift, we would need an enormous amount
01:29of concrete to build a foundation for it, which goes against the point of saving some
01:33cash.
01:34Now, get a string, tie a ball at the end of it, and start spinning it.
01:39The string in your hand will stay in one place, and the ball will revolve around your hand.
01:45This is called centrifugal force, and the elevator will work in the same way.
01:49The ball will be the base in space, and the rope will hang toward Earth.
01:56The station from where we would enter the elevator would be in the middle of the Atlantic
02:00Ocean, and the line would extend from there.
02:03For this to be possible, the line must be perfectly synchronized with Earth's rotation.
02:08Otherwise, it would simply break or wrap around the Earth like a scarf.
02:13Also, the orbit the line would be following should be a perfect circle, because the line
02:18wouldn't be able to get shorter or extend.
02:21A bunch of research has been done using algebra to find the ideal solution.
02:26Wait a second, there's a use for algebra?
02:28Never mind.
02:29Meanwhile, I won't bore you with the math.
02:31We'll go straight to the point where the precise distance from the station in the Atlantic
02:36to the one in space must be 22,236 miles above the Earth, where the geosynchronous orbit
02:43starts.
02:44From there, the four outward forces are much stronger than the downward force.
02:48That's why the station would stay in one place.
02:51When you construct a house or a building, you start from the bottom going up.
02:55But to create this engineering wonder, we would need to do everything in reverse and
03:00start at the top.
03:01The main problem here would be the weight.
03:03If the line was too heavy, it would disrupt the orbit, and the conveyor dumbwaiter host
03:08would not work.
03:09So we'd need to balance the station in space to ensure it worked flawlessly.
03:16Steel is one of the most robust materials on Earth.
03:19The cable in every lift is made from steel.
03:22But when you need a 22,236-mile-long cable, things can get tricky.
03:28Steel is hard to break, but it's cumbersome, and when you have to use a lot of it, problems
03:33start to arise.
03:35We use heavy steel a lot in construction, but we have lighter materials that might put
03:39less stress on the station and eliminate this problem.
03:42Also, the line would have to be tapered because, at the end point, there would be close to
03:47zero stress.
03:49But it would still have to be thicker than really needed due to a bunch of safety factors.
03:54At the start, the rope would be around 0.5 inches.
03:58After using some complicated math, we can figure out the thickness at the end, which
04:02is a number so long I am unable to pronounce it.
04:06But believe me, it's a big one.
04:09So steel is off the list.
04:11Another candidate is Kevlar, which is 5 times stronger than steel.
04:15And if we added such materials as carbon and titanium into the mix, the strength would
04:20increase tenfold.
04:22The line would have a diameter of around 262 to 557 feet.
04:28This is drastically smaller than the diameter of the steel cable could be.
04:33The bad news is that doing this is too pricey.
04:36So if we don't find the ideal medium to build a cable, the idea of the space elevator
04:41will just be a massive waste of time.
04:46If only we had some magically light material with a power of 60 gigapascals, which would
04:52have a taper ratio of 1.6.
04:54Oh wait, we actually do have this unique material.
04:58It's called carbon nanotube.
05:00It has a strength of 130 gigapascals, which is much more than we need.
05:06Nanotubes are made out of carbon and are 100,000 times thinner than a human hair.
05:11This material is solid and has good conductive power, which is possible thanks to its unique
05:16atomic structure.
05:17We use this product in many things, from batteries to optics.
05:22And it can be modified entirely and adapted for more uses.
05:26Bradley Edwards is the guy responsible for this crazy idea.
05:30NASA was looking for new innovations, and they said, don't do anything too crazy and
05:35start building a space hoist.
05:37I guess Bradley took this as a challenge and started working on the elevator.
05:41Edwards wrote a paper about a galactic conveyor.
05:45When he published it, he expected many people to find flaws in his work.
05:49But surprisingly, nobody did.
05:51His work was spot on.
05:53He came up with the idea of strapping a nanotube line to a rocket and launching it into space.
05:59The other end of the rope would fall onto Earth, and robots would use this rope to climb
06:03up and make it longer, so we could start building an elevator space station.
06:08After this, the elevator could start transporting everything, from solar panels to tourists.
06:15In the future, space tourism could be totally possible.
06:17Who knows, we might even go on vacations in space.
06:22Hey, looking for some atmosphere for your getaway?
06:25Well, don't come here, we don't have any.
06:28Oops, probably not a good advertising slogan, huh?
06:31Meanwhile, a couple of years ago, we could only create microscopic carbon nanotubes.
06:37But as time went on, much more research was done to make them bigger.
06:42Now they reach up to a few inches.
06:44In 20 years, they could be miles long.
06:47Carbon costs $28 per ounce.
06:49If we do the math, we would see that we would need around $1 billion to build the lift.
06:54Yeah, it sounds expensive, but it's a long-term solution to space travel, and it can actually
07:00save us a lot of money in the long run.
07:02Now everything looks perfect on paper.
07:05But NASA's main reason why they chose not to go along with this project is that right
07:10now there are probably more than 128 million objects floating in orbit, and they might
07:16pose a real threat to the elevator.
07:18The lift could be made to withstand a few hits now and then, but getting hammered non-stop
07:23is not part of the plan.
07:25So Bradley argues that tons of monitoring devices track space debris.
07:30Thus, the elevator could avoid them all.
07:36Now if something hit the elevator or the line somehow broke, the consequences would not
07:40be too bad.
07:42If there were no passengers on board, of course.
07:45If the line got cut, the elevator would simply float away into space, posing no threat to
07:50people on Earth.
07:51In Japan, engineers are trying to build a space elevator.
07:55The lift could be used for space mining, too.
07:58We could easily cover the cost of the entire elevator by collecting asteroids, because
08:03some of them are made of expensive metals.
08:05We could mine them and quickly bring them back to Earth.
08:08That's it for today, so hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like
08:13and share it with your friends!
08:15Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!