Many of us dream of a future for humanity in space, a civilization spanning multiple worlds and perhaps one day even star systems. But even with reusable rockets, the expense of lifting huge structures into orbit truncates our vision. Space elevators have long held promise as a possible solution, but the need for incredibly strong materials has made them a distant prospect. Today, Cool Worlds graduate student (soon to be postdoc!) Emily Sandford describes an alternative but related concept - the lunar space elevator. With no obvious technological hurdles preventing it's construction, this could be realized in our lifetimes - either for good, or for bad...

Written and Presented by Emily Sandford. All space elevator images/videos shown are artistic impressions and not real photographs.

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References:
► Penoyre, Zephyr and Sandford, Emily (2020), "The Spaceline: a practical space elevator alternative achievable with current technology", Acta Astronautica, submitted: https://arxiv.org/abs/1908.09339
► Pearson, J. (1979), "Anchored lunar satellites for cislunar transportation and communication", Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, 27, 39: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/197...
► Eubanks, T. M. and Radley, C. F. (2016), "Scientific return of a lunar elevator", Space Policy, 37, 97: https://arxiv.org/abs/1609.00709

Video materials and graphics used:
► ESA animation of identified space debris by the US Space Surveillance Catalogue: https://www.esa.int/Safety_Security/S...
► SRM Robotics video of robot climbing rope:    • Rope Climbing robot concept  
► Kerbal Space Program videos by maccollo (   • KSP Mars Ultra Direct: Ludicrous sing...  ) and SWDennis (   • KSP - Space Elevator  )
► Astronaut space walk courtesy of NASA TV
► Gravity well animation by Rob Fitzel:    • Earth-Moon Gravity Well  

Outro music used, in chronological order:
► "Always Dreaming" by Caleb Etheridge, licensed through SoundStripe.com: https://app.soundstripe.com/songs/5534

And also...
► Columbia University Department of Astronomy: http://www.astro.columbia.edu
► Cool Worlds Lab website: http://coolworlds.astro.columbia.edu

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