Prospects, Economics and the Environment

The Space Cable is a proposal with an outline feasibility study and supporting mathematical reasoning (see published papers) that shows it can be built with today’s materials by extending known techniques.

The Environment

Rocket launches cause a great deal of noise and pollution, whereas the Space Cable is silent apart from air noise. Since vehicles depart quite slowly when at low altitude, there will be less noise than that made by aircraft landing – much less than the noise of takeoff. An efficient design for the space cable is proposed that uses quite a small amount of energy to keep it aloft, although this is not zero; energy is consumed in the stabilization processes (see Stable Magnetic Levitation and Stabilization and Cross Winds). However, a net energy surplus could be achieved by attaching thin-film solar panels above the level of cloud and wind. By contrast, in rocket and jet propulsion, enormous quantities of energy are dissipated with the exhaust gases. Some people may object to the sight of tubes soaring into the sky; others may find the design quite elegant. It is hard to predict such matters of taste and aesthetics.

Economics

The design parameter that most affects costs is the speed of the bolts. This determines the expense on superconductors in the ambits and ramps, because their radius is proportional to the speed squared. This can be kept relatively low by having greater mass in the bolts, achieved by lengthening them.

Cost Estimate

The following estimate includes the main cost items. To cover smaller items and overheads, it uses retail prices, even though the purchases can be made much more economically in bulk. British pounds are used with a total converted to dollars and euros.

Based on the current rates of exchange, £3450 million is roughly equivalent to $5.2 billion or €4 billion.

Income Estimate

A single scientific instrument such as the Hubble space telescope could pay for most, if not all, of this figure; its estimated lifetime cost is about $6 billion. Placing a telescope on the space cable would be more like building a ground-based observatory in terms of cost and complexity, because it can readily be accessed for servicing and upgrades.

The Space Cable would materially improve the viability of the proposal to combat global warming by placing a large number of shields between the Earth and the Sun. They could be launched directly to the required point (the Lagrange point) at quite a modest cost compared with launching them by rockets.

1000 tourists a day would use three trips of each of five 100-seat vehicles, assuming 67% loading. If they each pay £2000 and the operating cost is £500 out of that, the annual revenue is £500 million. This turns a profit in the fifth year without counting other sources of revenue.

Future Activity

There is still theoretical work needed on some aspects of Space Cable. At the same time, much progress could be achieved by building an indoor scale model. If you are interested in supporting or participating in this activity, please make contact (see Contacts).

The best prospect for progress beyond that is probably to use the technology on smaller-scale applications such as a stratospheric wind farm or a very high ladder deployed on a truck for rescue from tall buildings.