Daily Archives: May 17, 2006

Earth’s Artificial Ring: Project West Ford

One of the known problems which will have to be solved before a Space Elevator can become a reality is space debris.  I ran across this article, detailing one of the sources of debris.  In 1963, the Air Force launched a rocket that put 480 million tiny copper needles into space, and, according to the same article, some of them are still there.  Interesting reading.

One small step for NASA, One giant leap for the X Prize

Over at Lunar Lander Challenge, Robin writes, in some detail, about NASA’s Centennial Challenges.  Though the bulk of the article discusses the X Prize, he does mention the Tether and Climber challenges.

One line in the story stood out; “…now that Spaceward Foundation is considering an invitation to stage its competitions in Las Cruces this year.”  Note the verb “considering.”  So is the date/location change to October 19th-22nd / Las Cruces (as reported at the Space Elevator Reference site) definite or not?  I called Elevator2010 and left a message – hopefully they’ll call me back soon and I’ll let everyone know.

Next Floor – Men’s Fashion, Sporting Goods and the Ionosphere …

In this Yahoo Finance story, Zilog announces that they are going to be supplying 8 bit hardware and software to the University of British Columbia team that is competing in the 2006 Space Elevator Games.  It’s a good story and it’s interesting to read about Team Snowstar, but the story has the old date and location for this years competition; as announced on the Space Elevator Reference site, the games this year will be held from October 19th through the 22nd at Las Cruces, New Mexico.