Program Information
| Jim Crisafulli Director, Office of Aerospace Development Strategic Industries Division DBEDT/State of Hawaiʻi Phone: 808-586-2388 FAX: 808-586-2536 E-mail: [email protected] Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jim-crisafulli/13/b16/a06 |
John Hamilton Deputy Director, PISCES Instructor, Physics & Astronomy at University of Hawai‘i at Hilo E-mail: [email protected] Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-hamilton/46/546/20 |
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University of Hawai‘i at Hilo Conference Center
E-mail: [email protected]
Wishing you the best always! Wish I could be there!
Aloha,
Janice
We wish you could be there too Janice!
For a one time capital cost of US$800Million 2012, a lunar elevator can be built today using existing available materials. This first generation lunar elevator will softly deliver an infinite number of payloads to the lunar surface, each weighing 100 kg, and retrieve the same amount of material from the lunar surface. The alternative of using chemical rockets to soft land on the Moon is prohibitively expensive.
The first generation lunar elevator kit weighs 11,000 kg and can be delivered today to the Lunar L1 lagrange libration location, using a single Delta-IV (or Ariane-V) launch. From there the tether is unreeled upwards and downwards. The lower end anchors itself into the lunar soil using robotic penetrators.
The lunar elevator will cheaply transport oxygen from the Moon to Low Earth Orbit where it can refuel tugs to take satellites from LEO to GEO, a significant revenue source. This reduces the cost of launches to GEO by a factor of Eight times.