Let us not forget the Visionaries, Yuri and Arthur.
In 1960, my friend Yuri Artzutanov wrote an article "V Kosmos na Electrovoze (English: Into Space with the Help of an Electric Locomotive)", where he discussed the concept of the space elevator as an economical, safe and convenient way to access orbit and facilitate space exploration. The idea was popularized in the novel "Fountains of Paradise" by another friend of mine, Sir Arthur C. Clarke.
Yuri developed the idea from works of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who in 1895 proposed an idea of building an 'orbital tower'.
Yuri suggested using a geo-synchronous satellite as the base from which to construct the tower. By using a counterweight, a cable would be lowered from geo-synchronous orbit to the surface of Earth while the counterweight was extended from the satellite away from Earth, keeping the center of mass of the cable motionless relative to Earth.
Note that the ideas of the tower and the elevator differ since the tower is a compression structure, while the elevator is an orbiting tension structure, much easier to build and maintain. This was what caught Arthur's interest. Arthur, inventor of the 'Clarke Belt', was the first to publish a method allowing for geo-synchronous satellites. In his article in Wireless World, Arthur offered mathematical proof that such a concept was possible. Many laughed at Arthur, as many now laugh at Yuri.
While Yuri worked out a system that he believed would allow for the construction of the space elevator, Arthur always felt that diamond, or some form of nano-carbon material, would be needed to achieve the necessary weight to strength ratio. We shall see.
My hope being that the Japanese will credit Sir Arthur C. Clarke and Yuri Artzutanov for their visionary contributions.
As Arthur was fond of saying: "The earth is only a cradle, one from which humanity must mature, or someday face extinction."
Robert Bishop
www.novamir.org
