Request AddOn Request: Lunar Space Elevator

[Ceman]

I have been reading a lot lately about the possibility of a Lunar space elevator, which could be made right now from kevlar or a similarly strong material,
as the moon has little to no comparable atmosphere and significantly less G's than earth, it would be much easier, and we would not have to use (at this point in time, probably not for much longer though hopefully) theoretical materials,
would love to help as much as i can with a scenario involving launching to the moon and deploying a satellite to act as a counterweight
and the tether be dropped from orbit and anchored on the ground,
obviously to simulate that on that level of procedural detail might not be possible,
but maybe a scenario where you deploy a satellite into lunar orbit and put it in a lunarstationary orbit above a base marker, and have a tether as a separate vessel docked to a vessel acting as an anchor on the lunar surface, and the other end of the tether docked to the satellite, and the elevator would be at this particular moment the only thing i would not be sure how to work in, just an idea, any input or anyone capable interested? thanks in advance
Ceman

---------- Post added at 01:30 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:29 AM ----------

I have been reading a lot lately about the possibility of a Lunar space elevator, which could be made right now from kevlar or a similarly strong material,
as the moon has little to no comparable atmosphere and significantly less G's than earth, it would be much easier, and we would not have to use (at this point in time, probably not for much longer though hopefully) theoretical materials,
would love to help as much as i can with a scenario involving launching to the moon and deploying a satellite to act as a counterweight
and the tether be dropped from orbit and anchored on the ground,
obviously to simulate that on that level of procedural detail might not be possible,
but maybe a scenario where you deploy a satellite into lunar orbit and put it in a lunarstationary orbit above a base marker, and have a tether as a separate vessel docked to a vessel acting as an anchor on the lunar surface, and the other end of the tether docked to the satellite, and the elevator would be at this particular moment the only thing i would not be sure how to work in, just an idea, any input or anyone capable interested? thanks in advance
Ceman

for inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9XVHhkWxpI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BARV73DusM

---------- Post added at 01:31 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:30 AM ----------

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2Mx4WsZ1x4

 

[n72.75]

kevlar or a similarly strong material

Aramids are terrible in UV.

 

[Ceman]

Aramids are terrible in UV.

true enough, that was just an off the top of my head example, however there are materials that stand up pretty well in UV radiation as it would be on the moon with enough tensile strength to work as a lunar space elevator, i would think that debris and micro meteorites would be the biggest risk to maintenance.

---------- Post added at 01:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:34 AM ----------

true enough, that was just an off the top of my head example, however there are materials that stand up pretty well in UV radiation as it would be on the moon with enough tensile strength to work as a lunar space elevator, i would think that debris and micro meteorites would be the biggest risk to maintenance.

you should watch those videos though, the one from LiftPort Group is the conceptual design of the US based company working on it now or at least funding for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9XVHhkWxpI

 

[Urwumpe]

Don't you have to get down to the Earth-Moon L1 at least for having a point that (aside of lunar liberation), does allow an elevator structure? Pretty large distance still.

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_space_elevator"]Lunar space elevator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

 

[Dantassii]

Back in 1987 a classmate of mine (BS Aerospace Engineering) and I did a back of the envelope calculation on what it would take to build space elevators from the lunar surface to the L1 and L2 points and determined that yes they would be much longer than the Earth to GEO elevator but due to the 1/6th gravity field they have to deal with would actually weigh less than the GEO elevator if made out of the same material. Less weight can be translated into a weaker material which means a Lunar Elevator would probably be a lot more possible using current tech than a GEO elevator. You also don't have to worry about a massive debris field around the moon whereas on Earth you have so much debris in LEO that a space elevator is going to be impossible to keep together until that is all cleaned up.

Dantassii
HUMONGOUS IMS shipbuilder

 

[Artlav]

More recent idea seems to be a thin tether, launcheable on one Falcon 9, with counterweight of several spent stages from prior or latter missions.
The climber is a big pair of wheels the cable is wrapped around.
This would allow to get a few hundred kg to and from the lunar surface.

Theoretically, the price of getting to the Moon's surface would be equal to the price of launching an F9 to the L1 point, which is not a lot.

Could make for some interesting add-on, for sure.