The father of the space elevator

Memory of Yu. N. Artsutanov

On January 1, 2019, in the 90th year of his life, Yuri Nikolaevich Artsutanov died-a St. Petersburg engineer, an inventor, and erudite. He went down in history primarily as the author of an unusually bold idea - a cosmic elevator. We asked to write about this Anton Pervushin , who personally knew Yuri Nikolaevich.

The future engineer was born on October 5, 1929 in a family of historians teachers, graduates of the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute named after A. I. Herzen. His father, Nikolai Akimovich Artsutanov, in 1934 fell under the rink of repression, which, of course, affected the life of children. The family remained in Leningrad before the start of the blockade and was evacuated only in March 1942 on the ice of Lake Ladoga. Yuri and his brother and mother Olga Petrovna ended up in the village of Beloyarka, Kurgan region. There he graduated from the "seven -year -old" at a local school. When the family returned home, Artsutanov entered the Leningrad Technological Institute, studied “excellently”, went through a full course of graduate school, but did not want to defend the dissertation, because he became interested in invention.

Subsequently, Yuri Nikolaevich worked as an ordinary researcher at VNINENEFTECHIM (the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Petrochemical Processes), then-VNIIASha (All-Union Research Institute of Abrasives and Grinding). At the same time, he constantly generated original technological ideas, he managed to patent some of them, for example, he proposed a method of processing diamonds with a hot tool, which would reduce the cost of production during implementation.

In 1960, Artsutanov, under the impression of space achievements, put forward the concept of a cable system, with which it would be possible to remove cargo into high near -Earth orbit without the use of chemical rockets. Although the very idea of ​​the “tower to heaven” was considered by the founders of the astronautics, it was considered too fantastic, since the elementary calculation showed that with the existing materials the cable launched from a geostationary orbit to the surface of the earth (with a length of 35 thousand km), it would simply break under its own weight. Yuri Nikolaevich decided that the cable can be made not constant, but a variable section. In an interview with these lines, he reported the details of his “insight”: my friend, a large specialist in plastics, once said that they made a very strong material - its strength exceeds everything previously created. Typically, the strength of the ropes is determined by the maximum length of the rope, in which it begins to break under its own weight. So, for this material, such explosive strength is 400 km. Then I had a funny thought: at an altitude of 400 km, the gravity of gravity is less, which means that the weigh of the rope will be smaller, and it can be made more, lengthened. The sake of jokes began to count. And in the process it became interesting, and what the strength of the rope should be, so that its end to bring its end to the region with zero strength, to the equilibrium point. It turned out that this is such an astronomical figure, it is absolutely impossible to implement this. But since such a strange idea came to mind, it is completely optional to make a rope of constant cross section, and you can make, for example, equivalent cross -section - that is, as it lifts it, to do it thicker and thicker so that it can withstand not only the weight of the elevator that rises through the rope, but also the weight of all the downwards hanging down ... I counted. And it turned out that the connections between atoms in molecules allow such strength. So, theoretically such a rope can be built. By the way, almost immediately I found out that the required strength is already there - it is provided by the so -called “mustache of metals”! And once, by traveling in Moscow, I went to the editorial office of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper and outlined my idea to the editor of the scientific department (probably M.V. Shkastunov. - A.P.). He called the Department of the Sopromat and asked: is it really real? The professor replied: yes, there is nothing fantastic in this. And a week later, on July 31, 1960, Komsomolskaya Pravda printed the article “into space - on an electric locomotive” about my space elevator project. Thanks to this publication, priority in the presentation of the first engineering project of the space elevator Earth - space is recorded after me. And behind Russia ...

However, one publication about the “space electric locomotive” was clearly not enough for worldwide recognition. In 1979, the famous science fiction writer Arthur Clark published his new novel "Fountans of Paradise), which described the construction of a similar cable system. At the same time, the author used the concept proposed by a group of American oceanologists and published in Science on February 11, 1966 1 . The popularizer Vladimir Lvov learned about the publication of the novel, after which he joined the struggle for priority. And we must pay tribute to Clark: when he learned about Artsutanov’s article, he not only recognized his championship in the presentation of the idea, but also became a great friend of the Leningrad engineer - after a meeting in 1982, held during a science fiction science fiction writer, they actively corresponded.

In the future, Yuri Nikolaevich has repeatedly returned to the space elevator, refining his project and clarifying the details. Almost immediately, he came to the conclusion that there is no need to “attach” to the point on the ground, you can make a rotating cable system - a giant wheel that will throw spaceships into high orbit (“non -stationary elevator”). The archive preserved an application for the invention “Method of launching spacecraft and their return to the ground or another planet” dated to Mai of 1967. Unfortunately, it has a note “refuse completely” on it, but in any case, priority remains with Artsutanov.

Receiving such refusals, Yuri Nikolaevich did not despair and popularized his inventions through the mass print. In particular, the concept of “non -stationary elevator” was set forth in the article “into space without missiles: a new idea of ​​space start” published in the journal “Knowledge - Power” (1969, No. 7).

Having retired, Artsutanov remained an unconditional authority for everyone who appreciates the audacity of thought and dreams of distant space flights. At the beginning of the new century, experts attracted by NASA began to study the technical ability to build a space elevator, taking into account the appearance of the most dumb carbon nanotubes. The Elevator project was established: 2010 and the annual “space-lift games” (Annual Space Elevator Games) were organized, on which different teams of engineers were able to demonstrate prototypes of the relevant systems. Yuri Artsutanova also attracted to work. In 2010, he took part in the ISEC conference (International Space Elevator Consortium), held in Redmond (Washington), and in 2014 in the next “Games”, held under the name Technobrain in Israel. Nothing out of the initiative was expected: the time of the space elevator has not yet occurred.

In life, Yuri Nikolaevich was a very energetic person who seemed to try to “improve” everything that caught his eye. His erudition, attentiveness to details, unusual ideas, a friendly mood attracted people of various ages and professions to him. Among other things, his phrase was remembered: " The main goal of mankind is to increase good and beauty ." Now she has become the testament of Artsutanov to all of us.

Anton Pervushin

1 science.sciencemag.org/content/151/3711/682