Kassander

I have also noticed that, which is why I am now asking here 😉.

Yes, in the case of the first possible usage, that could certainly pose a major problem. However, the other two would likely only be restricted by it. But I hadn't thought of that, thank you for the response!

First of all, sorry for my bad English, I am from Austria, so it's not my mother tongue. I know that an ordinary superconductor could not levitate in Earth's magnetic field because its weight is higher than the force that Earth's magnetic field can carry. But the simple solution is to use superconductors that are hollow inside. This would drastically reduce their weight without reducing their lifting capacity. Even smarter would be to cover a light and solid material with a thin layer or foil of some superconducting material. To increase the stability of the object even more, you can choose a stable structure like a sphere and use struts in an optimized way. This would reduce the weight even more because less material would be needed to keep the structure stable. I asked ChatGPT how much a hollow sphere with a diameter of 10m and wall thickness of 10cm that is covered with a 1mm layer of superconducting Nb-Ti could carry in Earth's magnetic field. This was its answer: “The load capacity of a hollow aluminum sphere with a shell thickness of 10cm and a 1mm thick superconducting niobium-titanium layer in Earth's magnetic field can be calculated using the following formula: where F is the maximum load capacity of the superconductor, μ_0 is the magnetic field constant, V is the volume of the superconductor, and R is the radius of the superconductor. The volume of the hollow aluminum sphere with an outer radius of 5m and a wall thickness of 10cm can be calculated as follows: where R_o is the outer radius and R_i is the inner radius of the sphere. Thus, we get: Therefore, the radius of the superconductor is R = 5m + 0.1m + 0.001m = 5.101m. The magnetic field strength of Earth's magnetic field is about 0.5 Gauss or 0.00005 Tesla. The maximum load capacity of the superconductor can thus be calculated as: Subtracting the weight of the superconductor, the maximum payload is about 209 tons.” Since I cannot calculate this on my own, I cannot say if this is correct, but if it is, this would be a highly energy-efficient way to transport things since you don't need energy to hold the payload up. Due to the Meissner-Ochsenfeld effect, the object would be locked in the magnetic field lines. I know you could not use the full capacity of 209 metric tonnes because you need an isolation layer and a cooling system, but there would still be a lot of payload capacity available. A second possible use of this technique would be to reach space with it. Normally, you are locked in the magnetic field lines due to the Meissner-Ochsenfeld effect. However, if you use two or more spheres and switch the superconductivity on and off, you can climb up to space like a gecko. It sounds strange and would look strange for sure, but if the calculations are correct, it would be absolutely possible. Of course, you would not have escape velocity or even enough velocity to reach an orbit, but for cheap and safe space tourism, this would be enough. A third possible use would be to reduce costs and risks in the re-entry phase of every space-flying object. To decelerate from the high velocities needed for spaceflight, a huge amount of energy is needed. Heat shields such as those seen on the Space Shuttle or Starship are expensive and a huge risk factor in space travel. Due to the Meissner-Ochsenfeld effect, a smaller version of the calculated sphere would decelerate every spacecraft in the re-entry phase. It has to be calculated whether the amount of energy saved because of the deceleration is higher than the amount of energy needed to bring this structure in the spacecraft up to space. But since the enormous amount of energy needed to break through the magnetic field lines when a superconducting object is locked, I'm optimistic that there would be a positive outcome. In the future, when space mining and space manufacturing become topics, this could possibly save a lot of energy and money in bringing goods back to Earth. So there are three possible ways to use this technology. But why is no one developing it? Or is there something wrong with ChatGPT's calculation?