User:Philip Brenan

The InterSpace

Method and means for moving large amounts of material between Earth and Space reversibly. A space tower constructable from currently available materials. Bulk manufacturing of clean fuels in Earth orbit powered by solar radiation. Source of hydrogen for the hydrogen economy. An operating nuclear fusion reactor with long track record of safe operations.

The InterSpace is a device for reversibly lifting large quantities of materials into Space and returning equally large quantities of processed materials to the Earth's surface reversibly at low energy cost.

The InterSpace consists of an electric motor encircling the Earth. The stator of this motor is in low Earth orbit. The rotor can accelerate against the stator to a speed at which the rotor appears to hang motionless over a fixed point on the Earth's surface, allowing material to be simultaneously raised and lowered reversibly between the Earth's surface and Space. The rotor can also be accelerated to a speed greater than that of the stator: allowing material to be accelerated into higher Earth orbit, or to allow the capture of material already in higher orbit.

As the net quantity of material transferred into space is zero, and all transfers are performed reversibly, the amount of energy expended in transferring materials between Earth and Space is small compared to the chemical energy content of the materials transferred.

Materials that might be delivered into Space in bulk: water, calcium carbonate. Materials that might be returned to Earth: methane, oxygen, calcium hydroxide.

Local Space contains a powerful nuclear fusion reactor which has been in trouble free operation for the last 5 billion years. It has an expected operational life of another 5 billion years. Energy output is considerably greater than anticipated Earth energy consumption for the next millenium. Earth based efforts to capture energy from this nuclear fusion reactor are currently hampered by terrestial: rotation, surface curvature, atmosphere.

Reversible transfer of materials between the Earth's surface and Space is not new:  Arthur C Clarke proposed a space elevator which could reversibly transfer materials to and from geostationary orbit. Current proposals to build space elevators rely on the appearance of new materials such as carbon nanotubes at low prices: such is not currently in prospect. By contrast, the InterSpace can be built with  existing materials, the appearance of high strength, low cost exotic materials  will certainly enhance the speed at which the InterSpace can be built, but is not necessary in advance.

The InterSpace can be built exponentially. The existence of the smallest possible InterSpace would permit materials for a larger Interspace to be delivered into Space. Initially such transfers would have to be funded by energy consumption on Earth. Once the minimal InterSpace was in existence, water could be lifted into Space for hydrolysis into hydrogen and oxygen, which when returned to Earth could be used for powering further launches of material to construct a larger InterSpace. The larger Interspace could then in turn be used to lift more materials into Space with which to build an even larger InterSpace. At some point in time we will have enough material in Space to exploit the Lunar surface, from which it is much easier to transfer materials into Space than from Earth, allowing the rate of construction to increase still further.

The materials used to construct the InterSpace are in large part very robust, being made of metals such as silicon and iron, which can on the whole be delivered into low Earth orbit using electric rail guns rather than rockets. Rockets are inefficient because they have to lift fuel as well as useful cargo into Space. Electric rail guns lift only the desired cargo albeit it at very high acceleration

Space is a dangerous and unpleasant place for people to work in. Better by far would be a device that supplies the physical capabilities of the human skeleton and musculature under remote human control, such a device being called a "Gholem". A Gholem acquires pattern recognition and problem solving skills from its human operator, while delivering coordinated strength in a hostile environment. Gholems would be used to construct and maintain the infrastructure of the InterSpace. Development of Gholems can be accelerated by their use in another context: permitting people in one part of the world to perform physical work in another part, so that the intellectual resources of humanity can be focussed effectively on providing a future with abundant energy, harvested in space, for the use by all on Earth.