2. Human Achievements Cave man discovers fire ◦ Long time ago First automobile ◦ Late 1800’s First Flight ◦ 1903 Broke the sound barrier ◦ 1947

3. Space Travel First went into space – 1957 ◦ Sputnik Man on the Moon – 1969 ◦ Saturn V 1967-1975 Space Shuttle

4. ◦ First Reusable launch vehicle ◦ $450 Million per mission launch  $22,000 per kg

5. Possible Solutions Rail guns New Shuttle ◦ Orion Rocket Plane ◦ Spaceship One Permanent blimp ◦ Horizontal ascender Space Pier Space Elevator

6. SPACE ELEVATOR Estimated Costs ◦ $1.48 per kg Technology already exists ◦ Ground Station ◦ Tether ◦ Space Station ◦ Beam Source ◦ Climber

7. Elevator Components Ground Station Tether Space Station Climber Beam Source

8. Ground Station Mobile ◦ Similar to oil platform Location? ◦ Off the coast of South America/Mexico ◦ Equator Function as an anchor for the tether

9. Tether Carbon Nanotubes ◦ Has 26,000 ksi tensile strength ◦ Steel – 798 ksi

10. Space Station Large Mass ◦ Geosynchronous orbit ◦ Start small and send stuff up  Increasing mass

11. Beam Source Laser ◦ BIG  To be determined by mass of climber ◦ Types  Chemical  Solid state  Gas  Dye  Semi-conductor

12. Climber 100 mph Carry heavy payloads ◦ Cheap  $1.48 per kg

13. Potential Problems Cable Strength Space junk Meteors Failure Cascade Corrosion Material Defects Weather Vibrational harmonics Van Allen belts (radiation exposure)

14. Space Elevator Movie

15. 2008 Competition Power beaming options Laser Ascent/tether height 1000 m Tether geometry 3/16” round cable Average ascent velocity ≥ 5 m/s

16. What are we doing? Ground Station Components Climbing Mechanism

17. Laser Control All teams will use the TrumpF TruDisk 8002 High Powered Laser for Transmission Track length is 1 km Everything else; TBD

18. 1.(Stage 1) Design a receiving unit enables basic feedback of laser pointer location Tracking System

19. 2. (Stage 2) Transmit display data wirelessly to remote PC 3. (Stage 3) Mount laser to a 2-axis gimbal assembly; Use real time data acquired by a PC to track receiving unit and correct for azimuth and pitch

20. Prototype Parts Photo-transistors CPLD Laser Components – IC’s, resistors, caps, LED’s, etc. Circuits (bread board) Analog-Digital Proto-board Layout

21. Mechanical Climber Simple and adaptable ◦ For competition changes Roller mechanism to climb cable Hope to show it off at expo

26. Future Senior Design Teams Power Converting/Receiving Laser/optical control ◦ Programming of Laser Photovoltaic Supporting Structure

27. QUESTIONS???