NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: You're watching NOVA scienceNOW. Still to come on NOVA scienceNOW:
WILLIAM SATURNO: When I shone my flashlight up on the wall, I saw the face of the Maya
maize god there. I thought, "Well, I found this amazing thing, and I'm going to die right
here, and someone is going to find it and me in 20 years."
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: But first, did you ever think about taking a vacation in orbit? Sounds
ridiculous, right? Well, when the Space Needle, here in Seattle, was built, in 1962óback
at the dawn of the Space Ageólots of people thought they would soon be taking trips just
like that.
Of course, hasn't quite worked out that way. It costs about half a billion dollars just
to take the space shuttle out for a spin. Kind of an expensive vacation isn't it?
One, please. Thank you.
But what if there was another way to get to space? And what if that way were as easy and
as cheap as riding an elevator? Well, strange as it sounds, some people think this kind
of trip might just be possible one day, thanks to something known as the Space Elevator,
a 22,000-mile long cable that we could ride straight to outer space.
STEPHEN STEINER: What we're talking about is building the biggest thing ever.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: And what enables this big idea is the discovery of something so
small, you can't even see it with the naked eye: a new material called a "carbon nanotube."
Fueled by the promise of these tiny tubes, people are already working to turn the Space
Elevator into a reality.
BRADLEY EDWARDS (Black Line Ascension): It's basically a fairly straightforward system
once you get down to the nuts and bolts of it.
First, launch a satellite to geosynchronous orbit, 22,000 miles above Earth. Then, lower
a cable or ribbon and attach it to a platform at sea. Clamped to the ribbon, elevator cars,
or climbers, could carry people and payloads up and down. Lasers, on the ground, would
beam energy wirelessly to solar cells on the underside of the climber, powering electric
motors for the 22,000-mile journey.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: Okay, I know what you must be thinking, "A 22,000-mile elevator
ride? These people are nuts. Like, what would even hold it up?" Well, the idea is not quite
as crazy as it sounds.
STEPHEN STEINER: Imagine I have a yo-yo in my hand. As you spin the yo-yo around, the
body of the yo-yo is thrust outward and the string connecting you to the yo-yo is held
taut. Well, this is the same principle that would keep the Space Elevator up. We're basically
making a planet-sized yo-yo.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: A Space Elevator could be safer and cheaper than rockets, giving
routine access to the solar system.
Bringing this far-out idea down to earth, NASA recently funded a competition, in New
Mexico, to build and race Space Elevator prototypes. It was held at the X Prize Cup, a carnival
of cutting-edge space technology.
In the tradition of competitions that stretch farther back than Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic
flight, the aim is to inspire new advances in technology.
This year, teams of students and weekend inventors are vying for the $150,000 in prizes in the
Space Elevator contest.
MATTHEW ABRAMS (StarClimber Space Elevator Team): I heard about this competition, and
I thought, "Wow! You don't have to have a billion dollars and an aerospace company to
do this."
BRIAN TURNER: We're definitely at the cutting edge. You're going to see stuff go wrong today.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: The racetrack is a 50-meter ribbon suspended from a crane. Teams had to
design and build climbers, then race them to the top of the ribbon. In place of the
laser that might otherwise power a real Space Elevator, they could use only energy from
the sun or beamed from the ground.
The best time wins, as long as you go faster than a meter per second.
One of the first to try their luck is a high school team from Germany with an elevator
sporting an intimidating solar panel and name.
JOERN LUTAT (Max Born College): Turbocrawler.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: Turbocrawler. All right! That sounds mean. Sounds, sounds like it's
going to win.
But as Turbocrawler is about to take off, the wind picks up, Turbocrawler gets out of
hand, and the Germans are grounded, at least for the time being.
Julie Bellerose and her team from the University of Michigan are next to jump on the ribbon.
ROGER GILBERTSON (The Spaceward Foundation): The whole big idea behind doing this is to
get engineers in school to start working on this. At the end of this event there are kids
here who are going to know more about Space Elevator technology than NASA scientists are.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: Julie's climber is powered by a dozen spotlights that each have to track
the solar panels all the way up the ribbon.
JULIE BELLEROSE (University of Michigan): Light on!
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: The climber gets off to a good start. But the higher it rises,
the harder it becomes to hit the solar panels with the spotlights, to keep it going.
JULIE BELLEROSE: ...Number 4.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: After about 6 minutes of stopping and starting, the climber reaches
the top.
JULIE BELLEROSE: We didn't make it in the time required, but I think one of the goals
is to make it to the top, so we're very happy.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: NASA's prize money is safe, at least until the contest resumes the
next day.
Now, if you think the whole idea of an elevator to space sounds like science fiction, you're
right. It was popularized in the late 1970s in a sci-fi novel called The Fountains of
Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke.
ARTHUR CLARKE: (Author, The Fountains of Paradise): At last we can build a space elevator. And
then we will have a stairway to heaven, a bridge to the stars.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: But as long as people have dreamed of building that bridge to the
stars, no material existed to make a cable that's strong enough. That is, until we found
that one of nature's most common atoms, carbon, was leading a secret life.
STEPHEN STEINER: I wouldn't say carbon is promiscuous. I would just say it's very open-minded.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: Carbon atoms just love to form extremely strong chemical bonds with
one another. We knew they could be arranged in a lattice to form diamond or in sheets
to form graphite. But until recently, we had no idea they could also form tiny spheres
called "buckyballs" and tiny tubes called "carbon nanotubes."
Much stronger and lighter than steel, and able to conduct electricity, these cylinders
of pure carbon have been called a wonder material, a new building block that might be used in
everything from electronics to airplanes.
But as a Space Elevator cable, carbon nanotubes have some big problems: the longest ones ever
made are only a few centimeters. And joining them together end to end, one at a time, is
simply not practical. So how would we ever use these tiny tubes to make a cable that's
22,000 miles long?
Deep in the heart of Texas, scientists are taking a different approach to assembling
carbon nanotubes.
RAY BAUGHMAN: It's the dream of the future, but it's an achievable dream.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: To make a batch of carbon nanotubes, bake a silicon plate coated with
iron particles, at 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit, in a special oven. Then, add a dash of acetylene,
a gas that contains carbon.
When acetylene comes in contact with the iron, it releases its carbon atoms, which assembleóas
seen hereóinto nanotubes.
When the plate comes out, it's coated with a black soot that contains trillions of carbon
nanotubes, all aligned vertically in what Ray Baughman calls a "forest."
RAY BAUGHMAN: Think of a bamboo forest.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: But unlike a real bamboo forest, the trees in a nanotube forest tend
to stick together, thanks to a faint force operating at the nanoscale called the Van
der Waals force. It's sort of like magnetism.
RAY BAUGHMAN: So, when you pull one nanotube out, you pull its neighbors. And then they
pull out their neighbors.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: Pulling a whole row of nanotubes from the forest on the left, they
can draw out a ribbon of pure carbon nanotubes, held together by nothing but the Van der Waals
force.
This ribbon is less than one-thousandth the thickness of a human hair, and it's stronger
than steel.
But can nanotube ribbons ever be made strong enough for a Space Elevator cable?
RAY BAUGHMAN: That is an unresolved question, but in science and technology, I've learned
to never use the word "never."
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: Back in New Mexico, the mood is more optimistic as the second day
of the Space Elevator competition gets underway.
Among those hoping to claim NASA's $150,000 prize is Brian Turner, captain of a truly
homegrown team, the Kansas City Space Pirates.
BRIAN TURNER: I've got my dad, my step-dad, my mom, my uncle...great-uncle Max.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: Uncle Max. I'm Neil Tyson.
MAX: Neil.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: All right. You're one of the family affair. If you win, that probably
means more to you than just getting the money.
MAX: Oh, yeah.
BRIAN TURNER: I don't know. I think...
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: Hoping to make their elevator sail up the ribbon, the Space Pirates
pull out their secret weapon: 15 mirrors, each the size of a twin bed.
BRIAN TURNER: One person on each mirror.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: Beaming sunlight to your collecting mirror?
BRIAN TURNER: Right.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: To the solar panel?
BRIAN TURNER: Right.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: Giving the energy to climb.
BRIAN TURNER: Right.
ANNOUNCER: Are you ready? All right, here we go.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: Halfway up the ribbon, the wind kicks in again.
BRIAN TURNER: Got to get up there. I'm going to go look at it this way.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: Bouncing in the breeze, the parabolic mirror can't stay focused on
the solar cells, and the Pirates' elevator grinds to a halt.
BRIAN TURNER: Come on. Come on.
If the wind hadn't been bucking, I might have been better off. But I can't believe I didn't
make it to the top. I figured I could fight my way up there.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: Next up, and favored to win, is the University of Saskatchewan
Space Design Team, or USST, for short.
TEAM MEMBER: Go time, right? It's go time.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: Their secret weapon: a stationary mirror to reflect a spotlight
straight up the ribbon to the solar array.
TEAM MEMBER: Phase one.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: It looks like they make it to the top in record time, fast enough
to claim the $150,000 prize.
So did they win?
BEN SHELEF (The Spaceward Foundation): We have to have a little discussion about that.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: Before the prize money can be awarded, the remaining teams get one
last chance.
The German Turbocrawler crawls all the way to the top, but it's no prize winner.
And late in the day, a team of high school students from California posts an impressive
two-minute run.
EVAN JOHNSON: It's pretty good that we got 2:02.
JEFFREY GRATTAN: It's going on our resumes.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: But in the end, the prize money went unclaimed, because it turns out
Saskatchewan fell just short of the minimum speed of one meter per second.
CLAYTON RUSZKOWSKI (University of Saskatchewan Space Design Team): Next year, most of us
are coming back, and we're going to just totally take it up two notches and just go all out.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: But will we ever take a ride in a real Space Elevator?
STEPHEN STEINER: I think it's crazy, but I still think it's possible. And I think it's
something that, if we can do it, we should do it.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: Well, one thing's for sure, we have a long way to go before that
happens. But, who knows? Perhaps someday technology will catch up with our imaginations and take
the Space Elevator out of the realm of science fiction once and for all.