Episode 1 ︱Seeking Beyond the Rocket Equation ― The Prospect of Space Elevators

Here comes our inaugural podcast episode. In this show, we attempt to break down complex ideas to first principles and deconstruct them into digestible chunks. We're trying to get answers to tough questions with perspectives from space scientists and enthusiasts. This episode has at its core the implications of Tsiolkovsky’s rocket equation, which figures the hard limits of rocket-based payload transportation to Earth’s orbit. Furthermore, rockets are expensive, up to failure, risky and carry too little payload. Making rockets more efficient reminds analogically of Henry Ford’s classic: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”. One of the non-rocket approaches to get a fast, cheap, safe and repeatable transport to orbit is the Space Elevator concept which we are going to cover in the episode with our guest, the amazing Josh Bernard-Cooper, a University of St Andrews Physics and Philosophy student, International Space University alumni and Research Assistant at the International Space Elevator Consortium.

CONTENT

00:00:00 Intro

00:02:00 The basic concept of a space elevator

00:12:00 Google X, NASA

00:16:00 Motivation to build elevators

00:24:00 Design concepts

00:32:00 Speed of the climber and radiation

00:34:00 Main challenges

00:37:00 Space debris and elevator collapse

00:38:00 Best place on Earth to install the elevator

00:40:00 Beta test the elevator on Moon and Mars?

00:41:00 Optimal altitude for beta best

00:44:00 How many people are involved?

00:47:00 Non-rocket launcher ideas

00:49:00 Fundings, prizes, sponsors

00:52:00 Elevator in 10 years?

00:57:00 Realists vs Futurists

00:59:00 Why a lead blanket is useful in the Elevator.

SHOWNOTES

Joshua Bernard-Cooper https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-bernard-cooper

International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) https://www.isec.org/

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Episode 2 │A Space for Humanity ⏤ Ethics and Governance for Living Together in the Space Age