UpLift

UpLift: A story of Space Elevators and Power Satellites

plus a bit on Mining Asteroids

By Keith Henson

(Draft March 9, 2014 ~10,000 words)

June 2025

The cavernous hangar deck of the former aircraft carrier Enterprise

Amid a maze of electrical cables, water and sewer pipes, there were a hundred lashed-down house trailers. Mohawk-ironworker families from Ontario and upstate New York occupied most of them. Marc Leaf, his wife Minny and their children lived in an outside trailer on the port side.

The Enterprise was anchored eleven miles south of Baker Island, in the Western Pacific doldrums. It was just inside the only territorial waters of the US that came within a few miles of the equator. The location made the UpLift suits happy though Marc could not imagine why. Nobody was going to attack the huge ship half way between Hawaii and Australia. In Marc's opinion, the monotonous weather—no storms—was the reason.