How the Space Elevator Grew into a Galactic Harbour
- Paper number
IAC-17,D4,3,1,x36069
- Author
Dr. Peter Swan, International Space Elevator Consortium, United States
- Coauthor
Mr. Michael Fitzgerald, Technology, Architectures, and Integration; LLC, United States
- Year
2017
- Abstract
One of the principle elements of the International Space Elevator Consortium’s (ISEC) action plan towards an operational space elevator is to understand its customer utilization. To fully understand the potential application for commercial ventures on the space elevator, the concept of a Galactic Harbour surfaced. Galactic Harbour is a service marked term that represents a continuous operation moving customer payloads on multiple space elevators from entry ports to exit ports. These locations would most logically be the Earth Port where customers have their payloads loaded onto space elevators and their release points are at multiple altitudes as per the desires of the customer. The Galactic Harbour would then be the area incorporating three Earth Ports [on the ocean, with incoming and outgoing ships/helicopters and airplanes] and then stretch up in a cylindrical shape to include tethers and other aspects out to the Apex Anchors. Products [satellites, people, resources, etc.] would enter the Galactic Harbour around the Earth Ports and exit at some point along the tether [to LEO, to GEO region, to Mars, Moon, asteroids, intergalactic, towards the sun] depending on where it is released.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-17,D4,3,1,x36069.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.