Stretching upwards of 100,000 kilometres or 62,000 miles into space, the International
Space Elevator is by far the tallest and largest structure ever built by humanity. It’s construction
was to advance aerospace technology, rebuild Usea by creating jobs, supply the continent
with renewable energy and take an important part in an upcoming war, because this is Strangereal
after all - like why would you build all this cool stuff if you’re not going to use them
in a war?
So in this video let’s talk about the design, history and geopolitics of the elevator’s
constructions, why it was the cause of the Lighthouse War and the possible connections
between the ISEV and Belka because everything in Strangereal is connected to Belka - somehow.
Let’s start our endeavour in the late 1990s when Strangereal was hit by the most infamous
space boi of all times, the Ulysses asteroid. As you know the continent of Usea got hit
pretty hard and one of the most affected locations was the city of Selatapura. One Ulysses fragment
fell into the sea at a distance of 20 kilometres from downtown Selatapura, though it wasn’t
a direct hit the asteroid created a tsunami that hit the city and killed roughly 30,000
people.
Selatapura was devastated by Ulysses and in the year of 1999 which is when Ulysses fell,
Selatapura together with the rest of the Gunther Peninsula were part of Erusea. This is not
consistent with the briefings from Ace Combat 04 but it’s what the 2019 edition of Aces
at War says so we’ll go with that.
After the Ulysses fragments there’s the refugee crisis, followed by Erusian declaration
of war and ultimately ISAF’s victory against Erusea. After Erusea’s surrender several
things happened: the ISAF put an interim government, brought back the royal family and put them
into power, more on that in this other video I made, the Erusian military was limited to
a small defence force and 40% of Erusea’s territory was lost after military trial.
From this point on, Selatapura and the rest of Gunther Peninsula were stripped away from
Erusea. The Aces at War book mentions that this new state was independent but ran like
a puppet for the International Union, which occupied it and the neighbouring territories
with its peacekeeping forces to form a deterrent against any Erusian rearmament or aggression.
Now it’s important to mention that over 50% of the military personnel that occupied
Gunther Peninsula were Osean even though Osea had nothing to do with the Usean Continental
War but instead they decided to become the world police and send their military to other
continents.
In 2011, just after the Circum-Pacific War between Osea and Yuktobania, Osea took part
in some serious talks with some Usean nations about rebuilding the continent’s infrastructure
because Usea still had not recovered from the Ulysses disaster. The most serious problem
for Usea was still the refugee crisis but just as important, Usea was facing an energy
crisis because its infrastructure was also destroyed by the fall of the asteroid. Vicent
Harling, the president of Osea, proposed the construction of the space elevator in Usea.
Osea would help with the cutting edge space technology and funding while the Usean nations
would help with the labour and some of the technology. After construction was complete
the Usean nations would enjoy a vast supply of solar energy, a boost to tourism and technological
advancement while Osea would most likely receive the financial returns from its investment
and be able to further space exploration including the return of the Pilgrim One space mission
- more on that on this other video here.
In that year, 2011, the International Space Elevator Corporation, ISEV for short, was
created and work on the space elevator began. This is said to be the largest joint international
project since the Ulysses disaster however the extent of the contributions of different
countries is not mentioned, we only know Osea was the most important country behind the
project but many others were involved in an unspecified manner.
The location for the elevator’s construction was obviously Selatapura, the city was not
only a vital transportation link with large ports and intense maritime traffic but also
had natural characteristics to help the construction of the ISEV: first it was near the equator
and second, it had an undersea Ulysses crater where the elevator and its supporting artificial
island could be built with ease. It also goes without saying that the country where Selatapura
is located, since we don’t know its name, was pretty much a puppet for the International
Union so building stuff there would not be a problem from a military perspective because
the IUN already had several military forces stationed there - or so they thought.
Though the ISEV project started in 2011, the actual construction began in 2013 and was
expected to last only 70 months or 5 years and 10 months which sounds pretty amazing
for the largest structure ever built in humanity - I can only believe in this kind of short
schedule because of Belkan technology!
Anyway, the first step towards the ISEV was the launch of a rocket from the Comona Island
space center in January of that year. A construction ship was assembled in Low Earth Orbit that
kept circling the planet while gaining altitude via a Magnetoplasmadynamic thruster. In May
the construction ship reached Geostationary orbit, which means it’s circling earth at
the same speed as Earth’s rotation which means it appears to be stationary from the
perspective of someone on earth. At this point the construction spaceship began to extend
a cable in two directions - one towards earth and the other towards space - while the craft
was still gaining altitude.
Only in September of 2013 the cable reached the ground and the Earthport base was established.
At that same time the construction spaceship became the counterweight of the cable at 96,000
kilometres of altitude. By this time the very basic structure of the elevator was complete
and now it was only a matter of reinforcing the structure because the initial cable used
was very weak and could not handle the massive climbers that you see in the finished stage
of the ISEV. From hereon engineers started attaching more cables, reinforcing them and
using small climbers. With more reinforced cables, the elevator could accommodate more
climbers which were becoming increasingly heavier and using each other as counter-weights.
The process repeated itself until 6 large cables had been set up and at one point there
were 24 climbers in operation. At the end of the 5 years of reinforcing, it became possible
the usage of climbers weighing 100 tons each. Around this time the space station in the
geosynchronous orbit began test operations together with the passengers climbers. By
August of 2018 the Space Elevator was nearing completion and work progressed at full speed
with as many of 1,000 people working each shift in the Earthport. Construction continued
non-stop 24 hours per day with three different shifts used.
Almost all of the labour came from different countries within Usea. Workers coming to Selatapura
would get short-term work permits, receive about two weeks of VR education, work for
two months and then return to their own country with new knowledge and skill that could be
used to rebuild their home nation. It is said that over 100,000 Useans have taken part in
the construction of the ISEV structure.
Meanwhile most of the technology used came from Osea while some key individuals from
North Point, Erusea and Osea took some top positions. After stepping down from office,
former President Harling joined the ISEV efforts and was key in articulating with different
countries for cooperation in the project. Other notable people include site director
Yao from Erusea and ISEV construction technology research institute director Dr. Blüman, although
this guy doesn’t have his nationality revealed given his surname and the fact he’s involved
with technological shenanigans it’s pretty safe to say he’s Belkan. So there you go,
one more probable use of Belkan technology for the well being of humanity because Belka
did nothing wrong. <<< INSERT >>>
However the construction was filled with controversy. Erusea and the surrounding nations were very
frustrated by the hostile actions of the peacekeeping forces and the environmental damage caused
by the elevator. There were several protest and clashes against Osea’s involvement in
the region. Erusea for once saw Osea as an invasive presence in the Usean continent especially
due to the fact that Osea had not been involved in the Usean continental war at all yet was
exerting enormous political and military influence in the region which was just outside Erusea’s
borders. Moreover, it is possible that Erusea felt unfairly treated and jealous over Selatapura’s
economic miracle since the city was part of Erusea until it was taken away by the ISAF.
Due to the huge influx of foreign capital and the construction of the space elevator,
the city that was once devastated by Ulysses saw its GDP grow by over 500% from 2008 to
2018.
Erusea had been protesting over the years but never posed a military threat to Osea
because its military had been limited by the terms of surrender from the Usean continental
war. But finally Erusea said enough was enough and declared a surprise war against Osea in
May of 2019 after rebuilding its military and getting some upgraded drones from their
Belkan arms dealers. Officially, Erusea declared war due to Osea’s excessive political and
military interference in the Usean continent as well as Osea’s monopoly on the allocation
of the energy from the International Space Elevator which by the way was not even finished.
Unofficially you can also say that it was because Erusea wanted to annex the claimed
Gunther peninsula and that the radical faction within the Erusian military was overconfident
in their new drones while still agreeing with the official motivations.
As you know from Ace Combat 7, Erusea made its blitzkrieg attack, captured the ISEV and
took control of its defensive weapons like the two arsenal birds but just as important,
Erusea took control of a massive source of energy which is of major importance in economic
terms. By the end of the game the international space elevator is still up pretty much intact
and presumably it stays safe for the upcoming years.
However I do find the existence of the elevator interesting as we approach the corporate take-over
of the 2030s with General Resource and Neucom since the two corporations are also engaged
in a space race and having control over the space elevator would be a massive advantage.
I even say that if one of the two corporations had the ISEV that would go against the events
of Ace Combat 3 which makes me thing that at some point before Ace Combat 3 the ISEV
would have to be destroyed because it still represents government power instead of corporate,
but that’s just my speculation of the events post-Ace Combat 7.
In terms of design we will be focusing on the earthport structure and its connection
with the ISEV space station. This space station is located 36,000 kilometres high and at this
altitude several solar power generation satellites were to be constructed. These satellites would
send the energy back to earth by shooting microwave beams to receiving antennas located
around the entire Usean continent. And by the way, both Arsenal Birds Liberty and Justice
had a dome on op of their fuselage which acted as a receiving antennas for the energy, reason
why they could fly literally forever.
All in all, the ISEV acted as large source of reliable, sustainable and eco-friendly
energy to the entire continent. Some of the energy however did travel through the elevator’s
six cables to power up the three large 100 ton climbers. These climbers made the journey
between Earth’s surface and the space station at an incredible speed of 200 km/h (124 mph)
which is quite a feat considering how big and heavy they are - but still the journey
from top to bottom or vice-versa took roughly one week and twelve hours. These climbers
not only carried cargo but also had plenty of space for passengers who would enjoy a
very nice view out of their large windows. Also considering the length of the trip you
could say the climbers almost acted as a hotel and that reminds me a lot of Gundam 00.
From the Earth’s surface to about 12 kilometres of altitude the space elevator’s cables
and climbers were protected by a windbreak. Obviously such protection couldn’t go on
forever because of the massive weight of the structure even though it was built with lightweight
material and FOR GAMEPLAY REASONS. At the end of the windbreak there some lights and
sensors to monitorate the wind conditions in order to assess whereas it was safe to
climb or not. A malfunction of these sensors would immediately switch the ISEV’s power
to its backup and cut the energy transmission from the space station to Earth - which is
why you see Rosa vandalising - I mean, disabling the sensors on top of the windbreaker in order
to deactivate the Arsenal Bird’s shield.
From the top of the windbreak, which can be reached from the ground via a maintenance
elevator, we have emergency escape decks at intervals of 2 kilometers so that in case
the climbers get stuck people can jump to safety back to the surface with parachutes
of course.
Starting from 1,600 metres (5,250 ft) from the surface the ISEV has this large round
facility where visitors can go up and see a breathtaking view Selatapura and the surrounding
area. The ISEV’s disk is 75 metres high and assuming a 3-meter distance between floors
this section of the ISEV could theoretically hold 25 floors which would be probably used
by tourists and offices, basically acting like a mini-city in the skies.
The part of the structure of the ISEV close to the ground consists of the main elevator
pillar plus six columns that branch out just above the ISEV’s disk. The style is very
similar to the X-Seed 4000 concept building, which was actually to be larger than the space
elevator’s base and even house up to 1 million people - however there’s no reference to
the number of people that the ISEV from Ace Combat 7 could house and we don’t even know
if the six pillars were only made for supporting the structure or had habitable space inside.
As for the base, the ISEV was located over an artificial island. This island wasn’t
a megafloat but was physically connected and built over the undersea Ulysses crater. The
island had several cargo piers, ports of entry, medical facilities, hotels for the tourists
and landing pads where the Erusians casually leave a V-22 Osprey with its engines running
- totally a coincidence. And for protection, the artificial island was surrounded by a
breakwater with small openings so that ships could enter and deliver their cargo to be
shipped to space via the elevator.
Besides getting to the elevator by ship or helicopter, vehicles could cross a three-lane
highway that connected the elevator’s base to downtown Selatapura. Or another way would
be by using the underground service tunnel that connected Selatapura’s harbour and
industrial zone to the elevator’s base. This tunnel was mainly used for the delivery
of cargo and consisted of a double-lane road that goes both directions and four different
rail tracks. Between the industrial zone and the elevator’s base there are 4 safe zones.
Each of these safe shelters could be sealed with watertight emergency shutters in case
of flooding and they provide extra room for the parking of vehicles and the storage of
containers.
At the end of the tunnel we arrive at the ISEV’s lowest floor, a Geofront where trains
would drop their cargo which would be stored and loaded into the ISEV’s climbers via
automated gantry cranes. This is also the area where presumably passengers would be
loaded into the climbers for their 1 week journey towards the top.
This concludes the video on the International Space Elevator. If you want to learn more
about Ace Combat lore you can check this playlist right here and if you’re looking for cool
merch check my redbubble store, link in the description. Thank you for watching and I’ll
see you next time!