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Journal of Geoethical Nanotechnology Terasem Movement, Inc. Vol. 7, Iss. 2 (2012) 13 - 19 www.TerasemCentral.org © Terasem Movement, Incorporated

LUNAR SPACE ELEVATOR INFRASTRUCTURE

CHARLES F. RADLEY

Systems Engineer, currently representing Liftport Group of Seattle, Washington. cfrjlr@gmail.com

Toward establishing humanity beyond the Earth, Systems Engineer, Charles Radley, emphasizes the development of space elevators as a manner of accessing and transporting resources from the Moon, and possibly other planets, to Earth. Keywords: Charles F. Radley, space elevator, Moon, Earth, Liftport, space exploration, development, lunar, lagrange, centrifugal force, LSEI, orbit, EML1, Yuri Artsunov, Konstantin Tsiolkovski, Sir Athur C, Clarke, terrestrial, carbon nanotube, Lunar Laser Ranging Retrorefractor, LRRR, LSE, humanity, Martian, Phobos, Deep Space Tether Pathfinder Project, DSTP, Stringsat, YES2, Kaguya, Selene, Malapert Mountain, Shackleton Crater, Helium-3, Surveyor 4, Surveyor 6, Sinus Medii, Delta IV, Zylon, NASA, solar, electric, propulsion, PicoGravity Lab, Discovery Class mission.

“Sic Itur Ad Astra” ~ This way to the stars

I am on the Board of Advisors for the Liftport Group, a Space Elevator Company. There has been much discussion in the last fifty years of space exploration using megastructures; structures deployed in space, designed to facilitate our access to space and our use of space resources. With current technology, these will be built of strings. Liftport feel that the time is right to begin building and using these devices with existing materials to quicken the pace of space exploration and development.

Why do we want to build a lunar elevator? It’s simple, greed for clean, green,

limitless energy. We can build solar powered satellites by using lunar resources and foster space development to get humanity established beyond the Earth otherwise we face global warming, a catastrophic problem on the Earth. Space elevators could one day lead to positive, Star Trek-type scenarios.

A Lunar Space Elevator Infrastructure (LSEI) is a system built around a Ribbon reaching from the surface of the lunar nearside, to substantially beyond the first Earth-Moon Lagrange point (EML1). The large Earth-Moon distance means that, while the dynamical forces are relatively small – to obtain sufficient tension – either a very long Ribbon or a very large CounterWeight (CW) is required; one side of the Ribbon is attached to the Lunar surface and the other side is kept taut by a CounterWeight. The opposing force is the gravitational tidal force of the Earth, not rotational centrifugal

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force. Tidal force is balanced against the gravitational force of the Moon. The entire LSEI is in a dynamically stable Earth-Moon orbit.

In the LSEI prototype, a small solar powered climber will be lowered to the lunar surface; scientific instruments will be deployed and the climber loaded with surface samples. The climber will then climb back to a sample return capsule, located at the EML 1 Lagrange point. The climber plus sample return capsule will be taken to a suitable altitude above EML 1 for return to Earth. Sample return via the LSE requires no expenditure of fuel.

Space elevators are a very interesting idea and we hope that it will get us to the stars one day, but it’s not easy. Liftport is probably best known over the last ten years for attempting to work on the terrestrial space elevator idea that was conceived by Yuri Artsunov1 in Russia – actually, it goes back to Konstantin Tsiolkovski2 at the turn of the 20th century, but it’s been slowly refined by Yuri Artsunov in Russia and Jerome Pearson3 in the U.S. in the 1970s and then it was popularized by Sir Arthur C. Clarke4 – rest in peace. Liftport has been one of a number of groups working to promote space elevators.

It’s obvious in hindsight, but building a terrestrial space elevator is very difficult to do; the bottom line is, it cannot be done to date and we do not know when it can be done. The materials that would be needed do not yet exist. Theoretically, carbon nanotubes would be strong enough and light enough, but there is no process available for building in sufficient lengths and quantities. Over the last ten years, the progress in developing the technology has been proceeding at such a snail’s pace, that we’ve basically decided to table the idea however, something that is very interesting to note, is that we can actually build a lunar space elevator today! That’s a space elevator that would go from the surface of the moon to a location stationary to the surface of the moon, and that can be done with existing materials – actually four or five materials are strong enough and light enough to do that; they’ve become available within the last several years. That opens up some very interesting possibilities for developing lunar resources.

We are focusing on science directly related to monitoring, navigating or controlling the elevator, including the Micro-Rover5 and the lunar sample return as proof of concepts. We will use Lunar Laser Ranging Retroreflectors6 (LRRR) for navigation; these also should provide solid science for decades after the landing. We are seeking

1 Artsutanov, Y. (1969). "Into the Cosmos without Rockets," Znanije-Sila 7, 25. 2 Tsiolkovski, K. E. (1895). Speculations of Earth and Sky, and On Vesta, (science fiction works). Moscow, Izd-vo AN SSR, 1959. 3 Pearson, J. (1978). Lunar Anchored Satellite Test. AIAA Paper, 78-1427. 4 Clarke, A. C. (1979). The Fountains of Paradise. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich: New York. 5 Micro-Rover – “[A]n economical multi-dimension robotic tool that can be easily assembled, repaired, and customized for interstellar missions.” Retrieved from http://robotics.nasa.gov/lmr/ 6 Lunar Laser Ranging Retroreflector – “[A] series of corner-cube reflectors, which are a special type of mirror with the property of always reflecting an incoming light beam back in the direction it came from. Reflectors can be illuminated by laser beams aimed through large telescopes on Earth.” Retrieved from http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_11/experiments/lrr/

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partners for science opportunities, both on the descent, with the CounterWeight, and with the landing platform. What follows is what we see as some of the science opportunities afforded by the LSE, and feel confident that others will emerge.

Once humanity begins to access resources of the moon and the asteroids in space that introduces a lot of interesting legal questions. Another interim objective would be to build a Martian space elevator – that’s harder to do than a lunar space elevator, but easier than a terrestrial space elevator. The problem there is that the Martian moon, Phobos, gets in the way, so the space elevator to the Moon would have to be anchored to the moon, Phobos, which means it’d not synchronous with the Martian rotation. We have a plan that involves the Deep Space Tether Pathfinder Project7 (DSTP), and then we have incremental development plans involving what we call Stringsats in Earth Orbit. There are various people that have already done these. The longest tether deployed in space so far was the YES28 deployed to 31.7kilometers, a joint Russian/European space agency mission that was remarkably successful and was accomplished through a budget of about three million Euros.

This is a diagram of what the lunar elevator might look like. There are some variations, but essentially, you see the Earth on the left, the Moon on the right – there’s a location, approximately 200,000 miles from the earth and about 50,000 miles above the surface of the Moon where the gravitational forces balance out, and that’s one of the so- 7 Deep Space Tether Pathfinder Project – “[A] tether, in space, of at least one megameter in length. Such tethers are possible with current technology and offer the means for accelerating the exploration and development of the solar system.” Eubanks, T.M. (2012). Sample Return from Shackleton Crater with the Deep Space Tether Pathfinder (DSTP). 43rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. Retrieved from http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2012/pdf/2870.pdf 8 YES2 (Young Engineer’s Satellite 2) - “The YES programme offers a[n] opportunity for students, professors and universities to jointly design and build real spaceflight hardware.” Retrieved from http://www.esa.int/Education/Young_Engineers_Satellites/The_YES_programme

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called Lagrange Libration points. The Lagrange point number one (there are five of them that we know of), is gravitationally neutral, where the gravitational attraction of the Moon and of the Earth balance out, so you can put a space station there and it will tend to stay there and though it will drift somewhat, it will need a little bit of propellant to maintain it there, but that is exactly the same problem commercial geosynchronous satellites have today, it’s easily solvable, you just have to use a little bit of fuel for thrust and that’s all you need. The tether is extremely long, about 250,000 kilometers; they extend from the surface of the Moon through the L1 Station, to a counterweight, which is extended about 80,000 miles above the surface of the Earth.

This system is very interesting because soft-landing payloads onto the surface of the Moon using chemical rockets, which is the standard method, is extremely expensive. This makes that process much cheaper. It’s not free, you still have to get from the surface of the Earth to Earth’s orbit, but it reduces the cost by well over a factor of ten – it’s actually more than that – and it will also reduce the cost of getting material to and from the surface of the Moon, to Earth orbit, to essentially, zero.

This is an actual photograph from the Japanese Space Probe, Kaguya, (or Selene)

which means something like, Lunar Probe. The south pole of the Moon, two interesting features, The Malapert Mountain, which is in permanent sunlight, and Shackleton Crater, which is in permanent darkness. We are pretty certain there are large deposits of ice on the surface in the Shackleton Crater –which is an interesting resource. There are many resources on the Moon – one of my favorites is Helium-3. There is a huge demand for Helium-3 on the Earth right now and there is a great shortage of it because the US stockpile has basically been depleted. Sources of Helium-3 are now in short supply and there’s a huge demand for neutron detectors – tens of millions of dollars per year is the market.

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This is a scale picture of what a lunar elevator would look like. The lunar elevator

would attach to the surface of the Moon using what we call ‘Lawn Darts’. This is the center of the Moons equator, what we call the zero longitude point (the center as seen from Earth). Interestingly enough, an American space probe landed there in 1967, Surveyor 6, landed very close to that spot, so we’ve got some pretty good data there. Surveyor 4 attempted to land there, but we lost contact with it just a few seconds before touchdown.

This is the view of Sinus Medii at the center of the Moon as seen from the

Surveyor 6 Probe in 1967. That’s a Flat-Mare area right there, which might be very good

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for collecting Helium-3. Unfortunately, it’s quite a ways from the lunar poles, but we have ideas on how to access it.

To make it clear, the Lunar Elevator will be very easy to build. All we need is a single launch in a Delta IV Heavy, we need about 11,000 kilograms of Zylon9 thread, which is commercially available, the cost of the thread is about twenty million dollars; the cost of the launch would be about 500 million; and everything else would be about another 500 million. The cost of the deployment system and the tether would be about 800 million. For that, we can get a system to deliver payloads of 100 kilograms, in a soft-landing onto the lunar surface. It can also pull the same amount of payload off the lunar surface. That’s pretty inexpensive compared to the rather expensive super boosters, which NASA’s putting billions and billions of dollars into right now.

Liftport wants to be in the business of mega-structures and has been trying to pitch this lunar idea to NASA, and they did fund a study with our partners, Star Technology, a Jerome Pearson company in North Carolina. Liftport had a contract in the early 2000s and then Jerome Pearson had another contract in 2005. This year, both companies put a joint bid in to NASA, but it was declined, so there is no NASA funding on this currently.

The DSTP is our precursor flight to LSEI, offering a way to get to the Moon at a fraction. Liftport believes it’s the future of mega infrastructure development. It can be done with the cost of a Discovery Class mission; it’s not too expensive and could become man rated. These are some of the current products that Liftport is working on and are part of our portfolio.

9 Zylon fiber – “[A] super fiber with strength and modulus that almost doubles p-Aramid fiber. Zylon has superior creep resistant to p-Aramid fibers and is very heat resistant, with a decomposition Temperature of 650°C (1202°F) and has extremely high flame resistance.” Retrieved from http://csrbraids.com/index.php/zylon-fiber.html

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We plan to use solar electric propulsion to get the lunar elevator deployment package kit from Earth orbit to the Moon. The Lagrange point is gravitationally balanced so we can have what we call a ‘PicoGravity Lab’.

The DSTP and the LSEI offer a means of getting to the Moon again in an entirely new fashion, using currently available technology. The DSTP is the linch-pin for all future megastructure developments, and should provide a lunar sample return from a currently inaccessible region. The LSEI would provide continuing access to the lunar surface, plus sample returns and a lunar transportation infrastructure, for the cost of a Discovery Class mission. While even a modest improvement in fiber technology would bring substantial improvements in payload capacity, we do not require this. The DSTP and the LSEI offer a path to a man-rated LSE and a Phobos-anchored Mars elevator.

This is Space 2.0: Space exploration for the 21st-century, not just an attempt to repeat what was done forty years ago.

I encourage you to go to the Liftport site at www.Liftport.com as there are interactive discussions ongoing in there as well as community forums where you may post questions. Get involved; we do have many enthusiastic volunteers!

For Liftport film and social media

https://github.com/LiftportGroup/LiftPort/wiki http://stars-space.com

http://youtube.com/elevatortospace

References Artsutanov, Y. (1969). "Into the Cosmos without Rockets," Znanije-Sila 7, 25. Clarke, A. C. (1979). The Fountains of Paradise. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich: New York. 43rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. Retrieved from

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2012/pdf/2870.pdf http://csrbraids.com/index.php/zylon-fiber.html http://www.esa.int/Education/Young_Engineers_Satellites/The_YES_programm http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_11/experiments/lrr/ http://robotics.nasa.gov/lmr/ Pearson, J. (1978). Lunar Anchored Satellite Test. AIAA Paper, 78-1427. Tsiolkovski, K. E. (1959). Speculations of Earth and Sky, and On Vesta, (science fiction

works, 1895). Moscow: Izd-vo AN SSR.