how to make a vanilla space elevator? help wanted

[gabgab01]

i've been planning to get into this game again, and my goal is it to make a space elevator without using mods, to see how far i can push my vanilla experience (and also to be able to use that world flawlessly in future versions).

it needs to achieve the following things:
- the gondola has to be detachable (for easier gondola improvement/construction/maintenance)
- powered by electricity (i'm gonna build a massive orbital solar park at the top)
- simple cable (because it needs a ton of ressources. i'd like to possibly automate building the cable, and it should only cost iron, so light armor blocks?)
- strong enough to lift huge cargo blocks / small vehicles (mars rover, imported from earth - that will make me rich!)

here is what i have so far:

- pressing wheels against the cable doesn't work (they break through, the cable cuts, not strong enough to lift everything up)
- using wheels as guidance might work
- having one rotor open up one side to make the gondola detachable is possible (just lock it with mag gears)
- best stable way is a caterpillar mag gear system using pistons (might be very wonky for clients in multiplayer. also, if not lined up correctly, for example without guiding wheels, might bring the mag gears to faar away from the cable and the gondola drops)

- so basically the gondola should be powered by 2 alternating caterpillar mag lock mechanisms, located opposite of each other and at the top of the gondola. the gondola itself has 8 guidance wheels, 4 at the bottom, 4 at the top, then additional guidance wheels at the top caterpillar locks.
the gondola recharges its internal batteries via docking ports (possibly also located midway on the cable - improved cable design?)
also, the gondola can be as big as needed, as long as it works^^

if you have any ideas, suggestions, screenshot or whatnot, i appreciate them^^
also, feel free to add me if you want to test your designs with me (final design should be able to be built in a reasonable amount of time in survival. also note that i'm located in germany, so expect network lag overseas).

[Gorbadon]

Have not done that myself, but you could look at EpikTek YouTube Channel to get some ideas.
He recently build one, just without an actual elevator on the pillar.

[spiritplumber]

What I do for a space elevator on a moon (not worth it on a planet imho) is just stack conveyor tubes upwards, and have a container on top and one on bottom, a battery, and a couple solar panels. Then two medical rooms, one at top and one at bottom. I use the med rooms to "teleport" but before I do, I send my inventory thru the long tube. Relatively cheap, no clang, instant transport.

[gabgab01]

Originally posted by spiritplumberFUG:

just stack conveyor tubes upwards...

yeah, that might work, but then again, i'd also like to be able to lift my shuttles and vehicles up there without having to disassemble them each time.
also, it's much more satisfying to see your ascend inside a pressurized gondola :D
also also, i'd like to build a space elevator to go into space in the first place, because when i usually build my space ships, they just run on hydrogen, and i don't have enough hydrogen to bring heavy machinery into orbit to make a ressource refinery there, and getting platinum for ion engines takes a while, and then i'll end up drifting in space because i don't have any more hydrogen, because i used it all to start and land on the planet...

[Gorbadon]

Most elevators on planets I have seen so far on YouTube use thrusters, wheels would only use power but cause a lot of problems and are limited on how mutch wheight they can move on a vertical surface.

[gabgab01]

Originally posted by Gorbadon:

Most elevators on planets I have seen so far on YouTube use thrusters, wheels would only use power but cause a lot of problems and are limited on how mutch wheight they can move on a vertical surface.

yep. i don't want to spend hydrogen on an elevator. if i use hydrogen to power it, i can build a rocket instead.
wheels aren't powerful enough, but can be used as guidance system.
that's why my request is so hard. trust me. i'm german. i'm a natural engineer, and even i have problems. i got all the small details in (caterpillar drive, guidance system, side opening for detachment, docking-airlock-system etc), but putting it together is really hard.

[Gorbadon]

I know what you mean, I am fom Austria so not that far of ;-)
Clang is most likely your biggest enemy with that aproach, but the theory is sound.
Unfortanly I dont have much of an adwise on how to actually acomplish your goal.
Keep in Mind there is a limit to how big a grid can be, you will have to segment your pillar struckture somehow to get around that.

[gabgab01]

Originally posted by Gorbadon:

Keep in Mind there is a limit to how big a grid can be, you will have to segment your pillar struckture somehow to get around that.

well, i could turn the limit off in the world settings, or make long segments with connectors at the end. or i could try merge blocks, but i don't know how good that will be.
i would definitely have to develop some kind of crane/printer to add segments to the elevator, but i'd like to have a working gondola first before i go into building this thing.

so here i am, trying to discuss the technology and gondola^^

[Gorbadon]

Unfortantly the one I am talking about is not the block limt, there is a hardcap of around 8000 or so blocks that a grid can extend in horizontal and vertikal size.

As you said not an imediate problem so that one can be worked on later.

[Nihl]

Originally posted by gabgab01:

or i could try merge blocks,

Merge blocks "merge" grids into one, so it wont work. connectors however should do the trick, because through conector grid will become subgrid.

Originally posted by Gorbadon:

Clang is most likely your biggest enemy with that aproach, but the theory is sound.

Clang can be stopped with block damage off :) saved my builds many times

Thruster lift is best solution in my opinion

I would personaly go for ion thrusters on mars/moons (significantly more on mars), and mixed ion/atmospheric on earth/alien.

I found atmo quite useless on higher alts of Mars, large ion thrusters will do the trick with elevation, not much needed to come back, gravity will do.

Main grid being a rail for elevator can be typical armor block, "socket" for elevator itself should be done with blastdoors corners, which are not affected by deformation, and can endure a bit.

Thruster elevator is simple thing to do at the end, i even have blueprint of my mate, who did one for deep moon base (inspired on one from SE campgain xD) because you can turn it into platform with thust on other side (downfacing), and gravity will do you comeback


to lift large ships there will be need for hydrogen engines to break drop speed or just elevate it. Mod engines can do the trick, if you dont scare of using mods. Emergency booster (+ batteries) have enought power to stop anything within seconds.

Its good idea to combine with timer block and remote control, so it wont reach speeds of 100 m/s, what can be dangerous if lift platform "socket" will hook on rail's collsiion model. Destruction may follow

[gabgab01]

@nihl
yeah, going thrusters on a rail might be the simplest solution, and using mods will simplify it even further. you can even use a mag rail mod with hydrogen thrusters for best experience.

sadly, thrusters don't really allow for a variable payload; they would have to have different settings depending on the weight of the payload. and if i try to lift a rover up, i would have to reprogram the thrusters.
to avoid this, i looked into a solution using the magnetic landing gears, found the caterpillar technique and am asking for some other ideas here.

mixed thrusters are also a possibility, but the space between the effective max height of the atmo thrusters is lower than the min height of the ion thrusters, so there is a "dead zone" between surface and space, which would have to be overcome by sheer velocity.
then again, because of the variable payload, it might not be able to "do the jump".

i was trying to avoid using mods, but maybe i have to rely on a magrail mod. then again, people are able to make awesome thigns with vanilla only.

for energy, i would have the idea to add connectors in set distances between each other on the main cable, and the top of the cable would have a big solar array attached to the docking station.


i want the station to be right at the edge of the gravity well, so that ships can jump directly to and from the station without much flight time. so that part of space can be traversed using ion engines. the problem is now getting out of the atmosphere cheaply and reliable.