Transportation – Student Team At University of Colorado At Colorado Springs Study Possibility Of A Space Elevator For The Ceres Asteroid

     A student team at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs looked at the use case of a space elevator on Ceres. They found that it could be done with existing technology. The findings of the team are published in the journal 2024 Regional Student Conferences.
     Every space elevator design has three different components. These include an anchor, a tether, and a counterweight. Each of these would require its own technologies.
     The anchor is simple enough. The problem is how the system interfaces with Ceres. The surface of Ceres is primarily made of clay, which is relatively good for existing anchoring technologies. The force the anchor needs to withstand is only around three hundred newtons, which is much lower than the force on Earth, given Ceres’ small mass.
     There have already been asteroid anchoring technologies suggested for other missions that can provide up to five hundred newtons of force resistance, so an anchor on Ceres should prove no real challenge.
     The tether for a space elevator is where the technology falls short on Earth. No material known to science can cope with the forces exerted on the tether of a passively controlled space elevator when it is tied to Earth. However, the closest existing material, something space elevator enthusiasts mention as almost a holy grail, is carbon nanotubes.
     In the analysis for the space elevator on Ceres, tethers once again came out ahead. However, the limitation of actually creating a long tether will still be a major problem for any space elevator design for Ceres.
     The counterweight is much simpler, as it can be just a big solid mass. However, its mass is proportional to the necessary length of cable. The heavier the mass, the shorter the cable has to be. The tradeoff between having a heavier counterweight and a shorter cable is another design issue when considering these systems.
     Calculations from the student team show that, with only a little more technological development, all three main space elevator systems could be ready for installation on Ceres itself. The big question is what advantages does it have? It could function as a launching point for accessing other asteroids in the asteroid belt.
    Ceres also has water relatively near the surface. This would be helpful for all kinds of human exploration, either as rocket fuel or biological systems. It’s also well placed to get things back to Earth by using Jupiter as a gravity assist.
     But before it can provide any of those advantages, someone is going to have to provide funding for it. Estimates of the total cost of the system total about five billion dollars. This is not too far out of the range of larger-scale space exploration projects. However, it is more than most countries are likely willing to spend for a grand infrastructure project that hasn’t yet proven its benefit.
     So, for the time being, any space elevator will remain in the realm of science fiction. But research like this and other ongoing technological improvements is how we will eventually move forward to that future.