Expert: Jayendra Upadhye - 12/27/2004

Question
Is it possible to connect a space elevator from Earth directly to a space station if the station is in a geostationary orbit?

Answer
Hi Jim,
Actually Arthur Clark has written a Sci-fi novel that deals with such a space elevator.

I still remember his description of the quite thick cable on which the elevator rides, and which is made of material like kevlar.

That was in late 70's novel "Fountains of Paradise".

The problem in realising these elevators are:-
1 - Even a geo-stationary object does undergo orbital degradation over years due to drag from very tenuous gases around the earth, and have to spend fuel in order to "maintain" their positions.
Any cable connecting the station would have to be fed out and rewound as the station changed position by couple of 100 meters or so! Locking the cable would mean "anchoring such a massive object to the earth, and no material known yet has the strength to do so.

2 - The material science had not advanced to the stage where we could get cables of required strength.
Now carbon nano-tube composite material seems to be the answer.

ref:- http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/space_elevator_020327-1.html

Or just type "space elevator Arthur Clarke" into google.

Jayen