Celestia Forums

after trying desperately to adapt what i know of solidworks to 3d studio max, i've decided instead to ask of you guys if someone could create a good space elevator model. should basically be a long shaft with a very large mass in the center. so maybe something like the deimos model with some structure on it and two shafts, one going down and one going up (CM in geostat is what matters so anything below must be mirrored above). thanks.

Someone has already made a model of it. Search the forums for 'elevator'.

Hi erostosthenes

As Ortolan said, that's right I have already done a space elevator model orbiting the earth, you can download it on my website at http://members.fortunecity.com/guilpain on the download section.
I didn't look at anything on the subject before rendering it so it is totally imaginary (and I'm afraid totally not realistic...) thus it might not look like the model you are talking about. Mine is a space station on a geostationary orbit linked to the earth by a 36000 km long lift (in fact 36 parts of 1000 km long with small stations between each one of them).
But after doing it I read some information on it and I remembered the one I read on Kim Stanbley Robinson "Red mars" and I thought I would like to make a new one

A really good book about space elevators is Arthur C. Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise, though he never meant it to be an engineer's treatise on how to build one, his is the most accurate description of how one must work and what problems must be solved in order for it to work. I've downloaded your model, and it's very neat, but the center of mass for your elevator would be far below the platform, and therefore far below geostat orbit and would bend and shatter apart. Still, it's neat to have in the meantime.

Is the model still available? The website doesn't seem to work anymore...

I've never got this Space Elevator to work. Celestia always freezes when it comes into sight - no matter what version.

erostosthenes wrote:A really good book about space elevators is Arthur C. Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise

It is that which Thomas Guilpain took as a starting point to build his pretty model of space lift (you can see of them screenshots on page ' Science Fiction' of my catalogue:
http://jeam.tag.free.fr/CELESTIAhtml/CelestiaAddons-SF3
Personally, I do not like much this novel of Arthur Clarke, and prefer 'The Web between the Worlds' by Charles Sheffield.
And Thomas is right, there is a formidable evocation of a space elevator in the first novel of the beautiful Martian trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, ' Red Mars '. Including what it occurs of this artifact, once that a terrorist attack detached it from its point of anchoring in orbit!
Indeed, Thomas, it would be very pleasant if you could adapt a new model: it seems to me (but I can be mistaken, I did not reinstall it) that your model does not turn well on the recent versions of Celestia... (the images that I give some had been captured with Celestia 1.2.5) In any case it is a very nice addon: it makes it possible to realize well of * the distances * in orbit, it is very impressive!

(hmm, d?sol? Thomas, je n'ai pas le temps d'actualiser mes pages en ce moment: j'y ?crivais que l'addon n'?tait plus disponible: est-il de nouveau accessible en ligne??)

Jeam Tag

Hi everyone

Jeam Tag, just after reading your message, I tried to connect to my website and it seems very much alive. I was also able to download all the models that have a link on my pages and I was also able to install it and make it run on Celestia version 1.3.1 pre 11, (by the way I have to say it is now even more beautiful when looking from one of the intermediary station down on the Earth with the 32k virtual texture !)
So I'm sorry for all the people that seems to have problems downloading my addons or using them on Celestia but I don't see where could be the problem as I have never experienced any one of them. The only bug that have appeared is with my second model of the Deathstar which doesn't display very well since version 1.3 but after looking for a while I wasn't able to figure what could be wrong, so I guess it has to do with some new way to render 3ds objects.
I am sorry but the "new" martian elevator version I was mentioning more than one year ago (wouh !) has still to be made but who knows, maybe one day... In fact the new virtual textures that have already been released or the one to come will maybe encourage me into doing this as it now makes even more beautiful screenshots than before !!

Pour Jeam Tag : bien que je n'aille pas souvent sur mon site, je n'ai jamais remarqu? de probl?mes pour y acc?der ou pour t?l?charger mes add-ons, si probl?me il y a, il est malheureusement ind?pendant de ma volont? et surement du ? un probl?me chez Free (en attendant que je refonde enti?rement le site, encore un projet de longue haleine....)

Thomas Guilpain

Puduku wrote:So I'm sorry for all the people that seems to have problems downloading my addons o1r using them on Celestia

It's ok now. I doubled my computers memory and this dit it.

Greets, maxim

Here is a recent article on this subject with some drawings...

http://millennium-debate.org/tel19nov032.htm

Lets have a go at it!

Regards...bh.

bh wrote:Here is a recent article on this subject with some drawings...
http://millennium-debate.org/tel19nov032.htm
Lets have a go at it!

Read, Thanks bh. I remenber an article by AC Clarke in a french newsmagazine in the early 80's, that predicted the lift for the 6 next years! That is a curious project... dream, sci-fi? However, a nice artifact for Celestia, isn't it....
Jeam

I have used the Celestia Earth as a basis for this image, which has the evevators drawn on using Paint;
as I am still a novice I haven't yet mastered my 3D programs...
apologies for that.
http://www.orionsarm.com/historical/spa ... ators.html

The Elevators should go well beyond geostationary orbit, and in fact are a balanced satellite with an equal weight of tether either side of the geostationary position; one end of the tether touches Earth (or perhaps only reaches the atmosphere, and airplanes could fly up to a baloon supported platform or something similar)...

the end of the elevator can have an asteroid as a counterweight, but vessels released from the far end will already be travelling faster than orbital speed at that height so will be flung outwards.

Kim Stanley Robinsons Red/Green/Blue Mars series of books prominently feature a Martian, and later a Terran, space elevator. Many construction details are described, along with several interesting implications and complications; e.g. the Martian elevator had to oscillate to avoid collisions with Phobos and Deimos, which were both inside the orbit of the counterweight asteroid at the end of the elevator. There is an exciting passage where the elevator is sabotaged; the counterweight asteroid is blasted loose from the end of the elevator, and the elevator comes crashing down, wrapping fully around the equator of Mars twice.

These books truly bring Mars to life. I feel like I have lived there myself. When I see news of Mars, I have to remind myself that we haven't been there yet. I would think that many people who love Celestia would find something to like in this series.

Textures related to this series have already been posted for use in Celestia. Also, for those who don't already know about it, there is an RGB mars web site:


http://www.xs4all.nl/~fwb/rgbmars.html

This month's Discover magazine has a detailed cover story on space elevators, with the latest design (using carbon nanotube wires and "crawlers". Check it out. It would be great to incorporate into Celestia, since NASA seems to like this latest design.

Frank

Jeam Tag wrote:Thomas, it would be very pleasant if you could adapt a new model: it seems to me (but I can be mistaken, I did not reinstall it) that your model does not turn well on the recent versions of Celestia... (the images that I give some had been captured with Celestia 1.2.5) In any case it is a very nice addon: it makes it possible to realize well of * the distances *

Using Thomas?s SSC as a starting point, i have made a new space elevator; it will be released as part of the Solar System Add-on in a week or two. This one is slightly more correct, in that it has the Elevator Station at GeoSynch in the middle of the tube - though it has only one, not two, tubes.

After the Solsys release, i?ll adapt it to Earth, and package it as a separate add-on. Here?s a preview of it:

Foot of the elevator: (notice the blimp in upper right corner for size comparison)


Geosynch Station:


Mouth of the Elevator:


- rthorvald

Dear rthorvald:

Your new add-on is exciting. I am anxious to download it. Please let us know ASAP when it is done.



Frank