30,000 km-long space elevator proposed on Ceres can solve two problems

Ceres, the Queen of the Asteroid Belt, is a dwarf planet that could prove crucial in humanity's quest for expansion in space. According to data collected by the Dawn spacecraft, it is made up of around 25 per cent water. A study has proposed that to draw out this water, a space elevator can be built on Ceres, Universe Today reported. Researchers at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs and Industrial CNT state in their paper how a space elevator would work and its numerous benefits. Ceres has plenty of water that can not only be used to sustain life, but also as a fuel for propulsion systems.

However, getting the water out of Ceres’ gravity well is the tricky part. This is where a space elevator comes in. According to Universe Today, the space elevator can "get the materials off of the surface and use leverage to fling them on a trajectory much faster than launching from the surface itself would be." The paper describes a design that uses both those features.

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The authors of the paper describe the space elevator as a 30,000 km-long structure. It will travel into the solar system "more than 30 times farther than the diameter of Ceres itself." Carbon nanotubes, manufactured by Industrial CNT, can be used to carry payloads of approximately 6,534 kg up to the station at the top of the elevator. The station will rotate in alignment with Cere’s rotation of once every nine hours. From here, the payload can be flung into space.

This action would decrease the amount of energy needed to get a payload back to Earth by approximately 60 per cent, and save fuel by 15 per cent, the paper states. The process would not only help save fuel, but it could also use the fuel from Ceres itself. The paper also mentions several water-based propulsion solutions. Microwave Electrothermal Thrusters (METs) have been shown to be of the most value. Water electrolysis propulsion, which separates water’s constituents and then combines them in a combustion chamber, is also an option.

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However, this would require power, and an enormous amount of it would be needed to run this space elevator. Ceres lies in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It doesn't get enough sunlight in this region, and a lot of it would need to be collected for it.

Another hurdle is the lag in communications. Right now, a delay of 25 minutes would happen in communications in each direction. So, manually controlling the elevator from Earth would be tough. So, scientists would first have to make it more robust and improve the automation before a space elevator can be built on Ceres.