The Steep Climb to Low Earth Orbit: A History of the Space Elevator Community's Battle Against the Rocket Paradigm

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dc.contributor.authorPearson, Derek J.en
dc.contributor.committeechairHirsh, Richard F.en
dc.contributor.committeememberWinling, LaDale C.en
dc.contributor.committeememberVinsel, Leeen
dc.contributor.departmentHistoryen
dc.date.accessioned2022-06-14T08:00:32Zen
dc.date.available2022-06-14T08:00:32Zen
dc.date.issued2022-06-13en
dc.description.abstractThis thesis examines the growth of the space elevator community in America from 1975 to 2010. It argues that the continued practical failures of the space elevator, a proposed technology for efficiently transporting payloads and people into space without conventional propulsion sources, resulted from a technological paradigm built around the rocket and supported by a traditional engineering culture. After its triumph in landing men on the Moon from 1969 to 1972, the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sought to advance novel concepts for further space exploration, but it fumbled in pursuing nontraditional notions of escaping the atmosphere such as the space elevator. Employing interviews with space elevator advocates Bradley Edwards and Michael Laine and other primary and secondary sources, this thesis also draws on concepts such as technological paradigms, engineering cultures, and the technological sublime. It concludes by demonstrating how success eluded the marginalized space elevator researchers who found themselves grappling with the vast social and technical system that supported the rocket's hegemony.en
dc.description.abstractgeneralThis thesis examines the growth of the space elevator community in America from 1975 to 2010. It argues that the continued practical failures of the space elevator, a proposed technology for efficiently transporting payloads and people into space without conventional propulsion sources, resulted from a technological paradigm built around the rocket and supported by a traditional engineering culture. The technological paradigm of the rocket encompassed all of the people and practices that made the rocket work. After its triumph in landing men on the Moon from 1969 to 1972, the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sought to advance novel concepts for further space exploration, but it fumbled in pursuing nontraditional notions of escaping the atmosphere such as the space elevator. Much of this failure is owed to an engineering culture within NASA that looked down upon challenging the rocket. This thesis demonstrates how success eluded the marginalized space elevator researchers who found themselves grappling with the vast social and technical system that supported the rocket's hegemony.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Artsen
dc.format.mediumETDen
dc.identifier.othervt_gsexam:35238en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/110765en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectSpace Elevatoren
dc.subjectHistory of Technologyen
dc.subjectRocketen
dc.subjectSpace Raceen
dc.subjectSpace Shuttleen
dc.subjectAmerican Rocket Societiesen
dc.subjectNASAen
dc.titleThe Steep Climb to Low Earth Orbit: A History of the Space Elevator Community's Battle Against the Rocket Paradigmen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineHistoryen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Artsen

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