Type: Engineering and Computing Sciences
This year, I will do my science Expo on an innovation that could, theoretically, use the force of air pressure at sea level to fire things like satellites and supplies into space without using hundreds of tons of polluting and costly fuel. Currently, there are vary few ways of getting things into orbit because it takes such a massive amount of energy and cost to get them there. My innovation, a large tube extending from just above ground level to around 25km above the ground where the atmosphere is not very dense (around 2.5% of the air pressure at sea level), would make it possible for objects to reach space without expending huge amounts of fuel. The tube would be made of something like carbon nanotubes. It would work like this. The object you wished to get to space would be placed inside a cylindrical canister whose diameter was exactly equal to the inner diameter of the tube. It would make a perfect seal with the inside of the tube. The tube would be sealed with a removable seal at both ends. All of the air would be taken out of the tube, thus forming a vacuum. The bottom seal would be removed allowing air to flow into the bottom end of the tube at huge speeds. It would push the canister up the tube extremely quickly. The canister would accelerate immediately because there is no air resistance in the tube because it is a vacuum. Just before it reached the top the upper seal would be removed letting the canister shoot out into the thin atmosphere. Its speed would be enough to propel it through the almost non-existent atmosphere and up into space. The only foreseeable difficulties with this idea is the cost of constructing this large tube and the energy required to pull all of the air out of it every launch. These costs may be high but, if it is frequently used then I think the cost per launch will diminish over time until it is less than the cost of launch using traditional thruster methods. Companies like SpaceX and Thoth Technology Inc. are trying to put forwards solutions to the problem of getting things into space in the form of small light weight rockets and a 22km inflatable space elevator. Both of the solutions proposed by these companies still require that we provide the energy to get the object into orbit (Rocket fuel or the energy used to operate a massive elevator) where as my invention uses the pressure of the air around us to provide the energy. If we are to expand our horizons to include space and space exploration, then we need a cheap and efficient way to get things into orbit. This innovation could be the solution to those problems. It is a simple and elegant method of taking advantage of the pushing power of air under pressure to transport things that we cold not otherwise transport without resorting to fuel of explosives to do the same job.