Daily Archives: January 9, 2007

NOVA Science Now show airs

I’ve just finished watching the NOVA Science Now show featuring, among other topics, the Space Elevator.  It was nice to see a science show that had the technical facts straight (I didn’t catch any errors – if anyone did, please correct me).  They also did a good job, in the few minutes they alloted to it, of covering the Climber competition at this year’s Space Elevator Games.  Again, they had their facts right; the University of Michigan’s Climber was first to the top, Lite-Won and TurboCrawler also made it to the top, and the USST team made it to the top in nearly prize-awarding time.

It would have been nice, however, if they had mentioned how much prize money was at stake, especially now since NASA has increased the prize money significantly – I think that would have been quite newsworthy.  Also worth mentioning, I think, would have been the Tether competition and the fact that the Space Elevator Games are an annual competition – with the third one coming up this year.

Brian Turner and the Kansas City Space Pirates must be happy with the show as they were prominently mentioned in it – there is no doubt that the “Death Ray” they attempted to ride to the top was quite unique.

As soon as the show is available online, I’ll post a link to it.  Also, on January 16th, we’re supposed to be able to see answers from Dr. Brad Edwards to questions posted to him/NOVA.  I’ll link to that when available, too.

All in all, good, free, publicity from a recognized source – and one can’t complain about that.

Updates from The Spaceward Foundation

I received this email earlier today from Ben Shelef, CEO of The Spaceward Foundation.

 

Hello Folks.

A short email this time.

First and foremost, Joe McMaster and Anna Lee Strachan from Nova wanted us to remind you to tune in to their Space Elevator segment today (Tuesday, January 9) at 8pm on PBS – check your local listing.

Joe and Anna came down to watch and film the competition at Las Cruces last October, so there may footage there we’ve never seen before.

The show URL is http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3401/02.html
Another item that was on our back burner for way too long is a comprehensive FAQ section, which you can now browse at http://www.elevator2010.org/faq.html

Thanks to Vern McGeorge for getting this project going so many months ago.

We have a lot more questions and answers on file – we’ll be updating the FAQ on a regular basis.  If you have a question you want answered, go ahead and email us.  If you have a question and an answer and maybe a nice illustration to go with – email them too and we may add them to the FAQ, with credits.
Finally, team registration is in progress towards the early-bird registration deadline at the end of this month.  More details will follow in February, when we have an official headcount.
Cheers,

  Ben, Meekk and the Spaceward Crew

Space Debris

Patrick Boake, in this blog entry, discusses Space Debris.  I’ve seen the video he’s posted here before – it really is rather alarming.

I’ve written before that I think the idea of moving the Space Elevator out of the way of “Space Debris” or active satellites or whatever is the wrong way to go.  Put a big laser on the station(s) and just zap the offending items out of existence.  And, for those few items in orbit which are a) still active and b) get in the way, offer a free launch of a new satellite to replace the old one.

get ready for the Space Elevator

I just found this October, 2004 blog article from Downtown Doll at fashiontribes.com, wondering if a Space Elevator will make rockets “as redundant as 8-tracks.”  As a previous owner of lots and lots of 8-tracks, I certainly hope so…

Update – and, fashiontribes.com has just published another article about the space elevator.  And, once again, Brian Dunbar from LiftPort has beaten me there.  The man is amazing…