Scientific Return of a Lunar Elevator

TL;DR

This paper explores the feasibility and benefits of constructing a Lunar Space Elevator using current tether technology, which could significantly reduce space transport costs and enhance exploration capabilities.

Contribution

It demonstrates that a Lunar Space Elevator can be built with existing materials, offering a practical alternative to terrestrial elevators and enabling cost-effective space missions.

Findings

Lunar elevators can be constructed with current tether polymers.

Such elevators could drastically lower space transportation costs.

They enable faster and more economical lunar exploration.

Abstract

The concept of a space elevator dates back to Tsilokovsky, but they are not commonly considered in near-term plans for space exploration, perhaps because a terrestrial elevator would not be possible without considerable improvements in tether material. A Lunar Space Elevator (LSE), however, can be built with current technology using commercially available tether polymers. This paper considers missions leading to infrastructure capable of shortening the time, lowering the cost and enhancing the capabilities of robotic and human explorers. These missions use planetary scale tethers, strings many thousands of kilometers long stabilized either by rotation or by gravitational gradients. These systems promise major reduction in transport costs versus chemical rockets, in a rapid timeframe, for a modest investment. Science will thus benefit as well as commercial activities.