In September 2021, the climber (elevating experiment machine) researched and developed in the "Space Elevator Project" of Kanagawa University achieved the world's fastest speed of 9 km / h (*) in the planning of a TV program.
The "Space Elevator Project," which started in 2008, is open to all students of Kanagawa University, regardless of their faculty or grade.We design and manufacture space elevator ground-lifting experimental aircraft and ground-descent robots, and conduct public relations activities for space elevators on a daily basis. We are working to improve climber skills.
The "space elevator" is an ideal means for transporting people and goods between the ground and space, connecting artificial satellites to the earth, and climbers (elevating experimental aircraft) ascend into space.The speed of the climber is the key to aiming for the universe far away, which leads to a reduction in transportation time.
The climber who achieved the world's fastest speed of 100 km / h has a total length of 660 mm, a total width of 280 mm, and a weight of 9.21 kg.A urethane rubber roller is sandwiched between belts and rotated to raise the speed. The speed is controlled by a computer, and the speed is automatically adjusted even when descending.
14 students and faculty members are working on the design and development of climbers.Mr. Noboru Ikawa, a first-year student in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, said, "I thought it would be difficult to achieve a world record on the day of the recording session due to the effects of strong winds and damage to the aircraft, but each person has a role to play. By completing this, we were able to set a record of 1km / h, "he recalled on the day of the achievement.
In the future, we will utilize the information obtained in this experiment to proceed with development aiming at a speed of 200 km / h and make improvements toward practical use.
* Conditions for climbing the tether (runway) on the belt vertically