Space Tethers and Space Elevators

by Michel van Pelt

Michel van Pelt explains for the first time the principle of space what they are and how they can be used in space. He introduces non-technical space enthusiasts to the various possibilities and feasibility of space tethers including the technological challenges and potential benefits. He illustrates how, because of their inherent simplicity, space tethers have the potential to make space travel much cheaper, while ongoing advances in tether material technology may make even seemingly far-fetched ideas a reality in the not too distant future.

Genres: Science, Space

225 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Ninja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but a little dry. Large focus on tethers, less so on elevators. Covers the ground (no pun intended) fairly well, though one section had a total inability to convert between miles and kilometres.

[Melissa Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book 3 or 4 years ago: one of the earliest entries in my now-expanding library on space elevators & related technologies. This was the book clued me in that space elevators (see the Wikipedia article) are (or will be) really just a special case of tethers: really really long "ropes" of carbon nanotubes with one end anchored to the Earth, & the other end swinging out there in outer space with a space station or somesuch attached to it, like a great damn huge tetherball making its high speed rounds. And little climbers (not elevator cars) going up & down it like insects. Big insects, carrying big payloads.

Well, and then there are all the other things you can do with tethers. It's one way, for example, to create artificial gravity: just attach your spaceship to some huge rock and swing around it, & ya-hey, there you are stuck to your seat. Tethers can also be used as skyhooks to pick objects out of low orbits and swing them into higher ones (or vice versa), or even to send them on to the Moon or Mars or even deeper into space. Check out the Wikipedia article on space tethers, check out the company Tethers Unlimited (based in Seattle): the applications of tethers in space are extraordinarily diverse & immensely useful. They're going to make space exploration a helluva lot cheaper too, once we really learn how to use them.

We're in early stages of learning to use them, but our knowledge is expanding rapidly. This book did a great job of introducing me to the possibilities, & it would be worth my while to read it again. I recommend this to anyone interested in the possibilities of less expensive space travel, & to any writer who, like me, is creating a science fiction world that has to contend with the realities of gravity & celestial mechanics.

[V.S. Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am writing a story which features a space elevator and this book was a fantastic introduction to the technology. The concept of space elevators and tethers is covered in an easy to digest fashion and requires little to no previous knowledge of space elevators, and to a large extent, physics.
The only reason I didn't give it five starts was because I felt it could have done with more equations and worked through the maths of space elevator design.

However, there is a detailed bibliography at the back to point the reader to the next stage of their learning journey.

[Robert Sawyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an overall brief of low cost alternatives to allow efficient access to space,.. it does well.

Yet, even since that time... NASA has shown that the Van Allen radiation belts are more dynamic than first assumed... 8)