Space Elevators — Moving Humanity to the Stars
Rockets will always be expensive. We must get to space another way. Will we have to build over the Fountains of Paradise?
The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke | Topical Discussion
How much does it cost to send something to space today? The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (ya know, NASA) reports costs at ≈$2,700 per kilogram on the SpaceX Falcon 9.
An average 80kg person would cost:
- $216,000
- 14,400 hours working at $15/hr
- 3x the US GDP per capita
Add food, water, and equipment mass — costs start to become too great even for many countries and mega-corporations. What if a new material was invented that could reduce the cost of leaving Earth’s orbit to the cost of an airline today? Would we even build it? Let’s explore the idea of a new way to move humanity to the stars through an award-winning Arthur C. Clarke novel.
Fountains of Paradise — Arthur C. Clarke
The esteemed engineer Vannevar Morgan embarks on a project to change the world. His first great achievement was building a mega-highway bridge between Central Europe and Africa — a true feat in itself. His next project would prove to be one pivotal to human history:
Construct a Space Elevator
An orbital tower stretching up to geosynchronous orbit, comprised of 4 individual hyperfilament tracks navigated by giant space trains climbing to the heavens. The project would reduce the cost of sending mass to space by at least 1000x and eliminate a major barrier to routine space operations. Asteroid mining, zero-g resorts, and realistic shots at establishing a colony all become feasible.
This project becomes a possibility after Morgan secretly raises investors for the project. One of the early conflicts in the book is Morgan realizing that it will put the entire space rocket industry out of business. He has to plan meticulously before announcing anything so he doesn’t get derailed by bureaucracy to protect the rocket companies.
“I imagine that a truly disruptive technology invented today would be stopped if it would harm modern mega-corporations.”
The elevator is made out of a new material called hyperfilament. This diamond-like material forms the backbone of the tower — strong enough for an invisibly thin strand (less than 40um thick is typically considered the threshold for sight) to cut steel and support the weight of a man repelling. The idea for the construction was sound enough that Morgan funded an orbital hyperfilament manufacturing station at rocket shipping costs — Those are some MAJOR investors.
Only the Sri Kanda mountains on the fictional island of Taprobane (based closely on Sri Lanka) can support the construction of the tower. The base of the tower must be built at elevation to avoid storm damage, and directly centered on the equator — for science reasons obviously. The monks living on top of this mountain are not interested in leaving the home of their order for over 1,000 years, a sensitive problem that must be addressed.
The story continues to develop, starting with navigating through the politics of world-changing technology, and ending with a decent “engineering drama” to save trapped people with dangerous equipment.
Building Over History?
While the main drama of building the orbital tower/space elevator is playing out it is juxtaposed with stories a millennium earlier and a millennium later.
King Kalidasa set out to build the Fountains of Paradise in Taprobane one thousand years before the space elevator. These fountains were an incredible engineering marvel at the time of their creation and are one of the important artifacts of Sri Kanda impacted by the elevator. Think fountains like the Bellagio but with humans carrying buckets up to refill a holding pond instead of using pumps. The Kalidasa story demonstrates the sad story of technological progress — once-great marvels being built over to make way for the new.
The Fountains are not the only marvel that would be impacted, but also the great staircase and the monastery. Morgan notes at some point that the staircase is a spiritual path to the heavens, and he can’t help but think he is extending the work of the builders.
“We can’t ask our ancestors if it is okay for our achievements to replace theirs.”
It is sad but true — the dead can’t speak. If we erase our ancestors we will forget their lessons. But we also can’t remain frozen in time, slowly rotting in stagnation. Building over history is always a touchy topic. We shouldn’t forget the past, or disrespect our heritage. But we MUST continue to build if we are going to progress. I’d like to think our ancestors will appreciate how much we have achieved.
There are Aliens Too?
The future story is about humans being contacted by an alien intelligence called Starglider. Intelligence is essentially an AI probe, but it has profound impacts on Humanity. Eventually, Starglider sends emissaries to visit from their world Starholme, and they struggle to be able to understand humans. This story is more about the impacts of meeting another species, and what impact it may have on us. Interestingly Clarke’s future Earth with many space elevators is a frozen wasteland due to the sun’s intensity being diminished. The population of the planet was able to move to space and thrive due to Morgan’s achievement in building the space elevator.
Humanity may have been destroyed if the world had decided to save the monastery instead of building a space elevator. What possible technology are we stopping by clinging to the past?
History of the Space Elevator:
The earliest proposal for a space elevator appears to be from a scientist by the name of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1895 — though he had it supported from the ground via compression and not supported under tension by a counterweight in space as first suggested by Yuri N. Artsutanov in 1959. While the space elevator concept wasn’t invented by Arthur C. Clarke, it is unique being the first major work of science fiction to feature the concept in 1979.
Book Recommendation:
Should you read it? 3/5
- While this book has so many cool ideas and elements, it was good — not excellent. The intermixing of the story of the ancient Taprobane king and the future aliens was a bit too forced in my opinion. It did make for a memorable final chapter, but I got a bit lost and disinterested in the middle from the confusion. The final third of the book is a fairly compelling engineer-saves-the-day story, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this book inspired Andy Weir in some regard. If you like Arthur C. Clarke and/or space elevators, this book is worth a read — but I wouldn’t move it to the top of your reading list.
World Immersion 3/5
- Being set on Earth with a fake island with fake names and no discussion of this fact was weird for me. Negotiations with the monks who live on the mountain are an interesting element to the story, and the temple site space elevator built at the top of the steps up to the monastery is poetic. I did not end the book feeling like I understood the zeitgeist of the people of this time.
Would I read it again? 1/5
- I don’t read many books twice. This won’t be on the re-read list anytime soon.
I do hope that one day humans will find a technology to reduce the cost of mass going to orbit…a space elevator would do just fine for me.
If this book does interest you go pick it up at your local library, or find out if they have a digital library for your e-reader.
