Daily Archives: November 30, 2006

Russia will develop space elevators

This Novisti (Russian News & Information Agency) article describes a rather unique take on a Space Elevator.

An excerpt: “Scientists from the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences have developed a unique space elevator for lunar and Martian missions. Although a bit slower, the new system will cut back on interplanetary delivery expenses.  A space elevator consists of satellites, spacecraft and payloads linked by long, thin, flexible elements. The simplest system links two spacecraft by means of a cable with a length of several dozen or even several hundred kilometers. This tandem, which resembles a space sling, revolves around its center of gravity, which in turn has a predetermined orbit. Either of the two spacecraft can therefore launch a payload along any required trajectory without any rocket engines.”

BuyMeToTheStars.com

One of the biggest attractions of a Space Elevator is, of course, its potential to open up space to people who are not either astronauts or rich tourists.

Over at BuyMeToTheStars.com, Mike Halls-Moore is trying a different approach to get to space; he’s selling “stellar objects” on his website to raise money for a future flight on a commercial space vehicle (Virgin Galactic, etc.).

Good luck, Mike.  Perhaps you will be able to use your funds for a Lift ticket 🙂

Scraping the sky

Over at E’S FLAT, AH’S FLAT TOO, Rahul relates how Professor Mark Welland, FRS, considers the idea of Space Elevator to be nonsense; “any undergraduate physics student could tell you why it was nonsense and this sort of irresponsible hype in the press had done great damage to nanoscience.”

I googled Dr. Welland, and he certainly does seem to have a lot of credentials.  I am going to attempt to contact Dr. Welland and ask him why the idea of a Space Elevator is “nonsense.”

Robots rule at FIRST LEGO League

I’ve blogged about these LEGO competitions before (here, here and here) and here is yet another story, this one from the London Times-Mirror, about these ongoing games and how they include the concept of a Space Elevator.

This is so cool, introducing young children to such concepts.  You see things such as this, and also how Space Elevators are becoming more and more a part of computer Games, as well as the creation of LiftPort and the Space Elevator Games (and the publicity that surrounds them), and it’s apparent that the idea of a Space Elevator continues to percolate through various layers of society.  This will pay off, I think, in public support for building a Space Elevator when the day comes that carbon nanotubes of sufficient length and strength are finally created.

Solar Power Satellites to Reforge Political Landscape?

On the LiftPort Blog, Tom Nugent has posted some thoughts as to which nations, more than others, might see Solar Power Satellites (SPS) as being very valuable from a national security perspective.

I completely agree.  I think that deploying SPS is the “killer app” for a Space Elevator.  I also think it’s a reason why being first in deploying a Space Elevator might not be the huge advantage its often touted to be.  For example, I could see a country, like Japan, deploying their own Space Elevator(s), even if others already exist, just from a Security standpoint.

The Space Elevator Journal debuts…

A new site for Space Elevator fans and junkies has turned up, Patrick Boake’s Space Elevator Journal.

Patrick contributed Return on Investment to the “LiftPort: Opening Space to Everyone” book.  His brief bio in that book states, in part; “Patrick Boake is a freelance techno-journalist in Toronto, Canada.”

Patrick has also set up a Google-based Space Elevator Search Engine.

Welcome, Patrick.  I hope you’ll be able to provide us with, among other things, on-the-spot updates from the Canadian teams as they get ready to compete for the 2007 Space Elevator Games.