Orbital Elevator System
The Orbital Elevator System (軌道エレベーター, Kidō Erebeitaa?) or Orbital EV (軌道EV, Kidō EV?) is a megastructure planned by Aeolia Schenberg in 2090 to function as a space elevator and a solar power satellite. The structure was designed as a renewable alternative to the dwindling fossil fuel supplies.
It consists of two geostationary rings, equidistantly supported at 10,000 and 40,000 km above the equator by three 50,000-km-high compressive elevator towers that terminate in ballast satellites. The top ring is lined with a photovoltaic array, and the towers carry the energy produced back to the surface. The system is shielded from meteoroids, space debris, corrosion, weathering, geomagnetic storms, radiation (from the Van Allen belt or otherwise), and assorted other deteriorative agents by a physical energy barrier. It is defended by the collective military forces of the nations that participated in its construction.
Presently used for civilian space tourism, the elevators also act as a stepping stone to the ongoing international pursuit of space colonization. Currently there are only a handful of colonies, including Celestial Being's Krung Thep and the Human Reform League's Quanqiu. The Union also maintains a colony, and the AEU, while lagging behind in colony development, is financing both the Reform League and the Union in their respective development projects.
The three dominant supranational powers responsible for the system's construction and operation—the Union, the Human Reform League, and the AEU—have imposed a global boycott of fossil fuels so to better monopolize the energy distribution market. They are located in South America, Africa, and on top of the Pacific Ocean.
Further information: Nations and factions in Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Space colonies in the Gundam metaseriesRead more about this topic: List Of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Technology
Famous quotes containing the words elevator and/or system:
“The cigar-box which the European calls a “lift” needs but to be compared with our elevators to be appreciated. The lift stops to reflect between floors. That is all right in a hearse, but not in elevators. The American elevator acts like the man’s patent purge—it works”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“He is not a true man of science who does not bring some sympathy to his studies, and expect to learn something by behavior as well as by application. It is childish to rest in the discovery of mere coincidences, or of partial and extraneous laws. The study of geometry is a petty and idle exercise of the mind, if it is applied to no larger system than the starry one.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)