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Can a space elevator be made out of a series of electromagnetically coupled solenoids?
Like build two things, a wide hollow tube that creates an electromagnetic field in it's center with North being up and South being down; and a smaller solid tube that generates an electromagnetic field around itself with north being down and South being up.
If you put two smaller tubes inside the bigger tubes with their ends meeting in the middle, the smaller tubes would be pushed out of the larger ones. Then you build a million of them and create a tower out of them. Would each tube act as an independent component, needing only enough force to push the upper tube up and the lower tube down, or would the force build up somewhere in the tower and cause it to collapse?
If each tube acts independently, you should be able to build a structure of arbitrary height given enough electrical power.
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>>7807572
I kinda like this idea, but it's the same problems as a space fountain in that it's an 'active structure' which will fail spectacularly if the power fails, and it sucks like a conventional space elevator because the magnetic structures themselves could be broken if the structure develops a whip or wave down the structure.
Sounds like a better plan than the stupid ass space fountain idea.
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>>7807572
Get an engineering degree and come back to me.
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>>7807583
I actually got the idea while reading about the space fountain idea and thinking "why not instead of physical balls we use electricity?". Solenoids are just the first thing to come to mind since I've been reading a lot about coilgun engineering.
What about a design made entirely out of permanent magnets?
Still a structural integrity problem, but that's an issue for anything tall enough to get into space and not as shaped like a pyramid. Though I kinda doubt there's a permanent magnet strong enough to support a robot crawling up it, maybe a bunch of parallel towers?
>>7807584
Currently in the process.
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