Rotating Space Elevator Propels its Own Load
<p>May 27, 2009 8:26 PM
 
Golubovic had his Eureka moment when stirring his coffee.
The internal rotation lifted it over the edge.
 
The idea came by itself,” Golubović told <i itxtvisited="1">PhysOrg.com</i>. “I was thinking how to make things move easily and quickly up the traditional Tsiolkovsky-type space elevators. In my kitchen, I was mixing coffee in my cup too vigorously and the centrifugal force on the rotating coffee won over gravity to make some of the coffee lift and splash out the cup. This was my ‘eureka’ that lead to adding a similar conceptual feature to the old space elevator idea, the internal rotation. Indeed, much like the coffee would lift and splash out the cup if rotated fast enough, the climbers on our Rotating Space Elevator will be lifted up by the centrifugal force winning over gravity.”
 
jkj</p>