https://media.ccc.de/v/33c3-8407-an_elevator_to_the_moon_and_back

Space Transportation and the Extraterrestrial Imperative

Why is it so hard to go to the Moon? The curse of Newtonian Mechanics and Tsiolkovsky's Rocket Equation force us to build huge rockets to achieve any meaningful activity on the Moon. There are two strategies to hack the laws of celestial mechanics: making fuel on the Moon and using cables to climb out of the gravity well. Here we focus on the latter, which is the Moon version of the famous space elevator. The difference to an Earth elevator is - anelevator to the Moon's surface is realistic with today's materials. In the talk an introduction to the general problem is given and a starting point for a discussion is given that can easily lead to a sustainable access to the Moon if there is demand to do so.

Markus Landgraf