Monthly Archives: August 2013

2013 Space Elevator Conference – Day 3

The 2013 Space Elevator Conference wrapped up today with another full schedule.  Attendees got one last “fill” of informative and interesting presentations as well as a chance to participate in 2 more workshops.

The first activity of the day was an informal polling of the audience as to this question: What would you do with a space elevator?  The answers ranged from the serious (colonize the Moon & Mars, send radioactive waste to the sun or to the moon for storage) to the whimsical (bring old cars up the tether and drop them from several kilometers up and then watch them burn up in the atmosphere!).  This activity happens at every Conference and it’s always interesting to see what new ideas arise.  The exercise does serve a serious purpose, helping to identify potential customers for a functioning Space Elevator.

The first presentation of the day was Electric Currents on the Space Elevator and was given by Dennis Wright.  He addressed one of the objections that is commonly raised against the space elevator, the concern of electrical currents which might be induced in the Space Elevator by various space-related factors and the fact that a Space Elevator is, in fact, a 100km long object that rotates along with the earth.  There are many unknowns about a structure like this, but Mr. Wright took the “knowns”, added some reasonable guesses for the “unknowns”, and came up with some preliminary conclusions.  In general, it doesn’t look like these induced currents are much of a problem (big caveat about the unknowns of course), but he did point out a potential electrical danger from broken strands of the elevator.  It was a very interesting talk and it’s clear that this type of investigation needs to be ongoing.

This talk was followed by multiple “Shotgun Science Sessions”.  This is a fixture of Space Elevator conferences now, a series of “5 minute”, “not ready for prime time” presentations where people can stand up and propose practically anything they want.  The audience then has a chance to ask questions and, perhaps, shoot the idea down.  These sessions ranged from being a Sci-Fi author, to how to dig regolith on the moon, to using a Space Elevator to send radioactive waste to the sun to everything in between.  These are lots of fun and have the added benefit of really getting the audience involved.  Presenters also know that they can speak without fear of being ridiculed – every idea is treated respectfully (even when it gets shot down!).

Following lunch, we then had the final two Workshops of the Conference.  This first was conducted by Dr. Bryan Laubscher and was entitled Balloon Experiments Workshop.  Dr. Laubscher wants to set up a competition for school age kids (middle school through College) that would, loosely defined, have teams who build Climbers that ascend/descend tethers that hang from balloons.  Teams would be judged on the kind of data they could collect, robustness, and several other suggestions made from the audience.  I hope Bryan gets this off the ground (pun intended) – it sounds like a lot of fun!

The last workshop was the Space Elevator Operations Workshop and was orchestrated by Skip Penny.  Skip was the chief author of the recently published ISEC study on Space Elevator operations. Skip reviewed the report and its updates and then gave a brief talk on challenges / opportunities in operating a Space Elevator.  The group then broke up into several sub-groups, each tasked with looking at a different problem or challenge in Space Elevator operations.  It was interesting, but not really unexpected, that the sub-groups came up with more questions than answers…

The day wound up with an open conversation between the audience and the Conference organizers as to possible improvement for future events & conferences.  There were lots of good ideas presented as to advertising, affiliations and workshops and I’m sure the conference organizers will use this input to make next year’s conference even better.

So, the 2013 Space Elevator Conference has come to a close – and it was a wonderful 3 days.  Once again I learned a lot, met a lot of interesting and fun people and had my enthusiasm for the Space Elevator project brought to new heights (once again, pun intended).

See you here next year!

(The top picture  thumbnail is of Dennis Wright giving his presentation on Electric Currents on the Space Elevator.  The middle thumbnail is of one of the Shotgun Science presenters – Jun Kikuchi – giving his presentation on why a Space Elevator would be very handy to have – to lift radioactive waste off of the planet and to fling it towards the sun.  The bottom thumbnail is of Skip Penny, orchestrating the Space Elevator Operations Workshop.  By clicking on any of the thumbnails, you can see a full-size version of the picture.)

2013 Space Elevator Conference – Day 2

Well, the second day of this year’s Space Elevator Conference has come and gone.  As with Day 1, it was filled with very interesting presentations and a useful and thought-provoking workshop.  And, as happens at these conferences, people have had a chance to get to know each other now and the personal interaction is increasing greatly – there are a lot of really interesting people here!

Today was very full too – beginning with a presentation from Bryan Laubscher, the CEO of Odysseus Technologies, Inc. (OTI).  OTI is in the business of creating strong CNT tethers.  It has had entries in a couple of the NASA/Spaceward Strong Tether challenges and has been trying some very novel approaches in the search for macro-level strong tethers (full disclosure: I am an investor in OTI).  Bryan’s presentation was on OTI’s PANG (Proximate Atom Nanotube Growth) Technology, an attempt to counter the phenomena that slow and halt the growth of CNTs when grown using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) techniques.  As we all know, creating a tether that is strong enough remains the single most difficult problem to deal with in building an earth-based space elevator.  As an investor in OTI and as a space elevator enthusiast, I hope that PANG bears fruit!

The next presentation was an overview of the just-completed International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) study on the Space Elevator.  In the study, entitled Space Elevators: an Assessment of the Technological Feasibility and the Way Forward, the 40 contributing authors (some from ISEC) and five editors expand on innovative ideas that increase the probability of a Space Elevator being built.  This study is to be released near the end of this year and its release will, of course, be announced on the blog.

The last presentation of the morning was on the 2013-2014 ISEC Theme.  Each year (and we’re talking about an “ISEC year” here – beginning and ending with the Space Elevator Conference), ISEC chooses a Theme to focus many of its activities around.  Past year’s themes include the study of Space Debris, the study of a possible Operations scenario for an earth-based elevator and the just-completed year’s theme, Tether Climbers.  For the first two Themes, ISEC prepared and published an in-depth report.  This same process is occurring for the just-completed year’s Theme, Tether Climbers.  The Theme that ISEC chose for the 2013-2014 ISEC year is Architecture and Roadmaps.  Dr. Peter Swan, the new President of ISEC and Michael Fitzgerald, a newcomer to ISEC, gave the presentation.   The 2013-2014 ISEC study will focus on comparing and contrasting the multiple approaches to  building and operating a Space Elevator that have been proposed over the past 10 or so years.  A preliminary report will be presented at next year’s Space Elevator conference with the final report to be produced and distributed some months after that.

After a lunch break, the entire afternoon session was devoted to the Lunar Elevator workshop, orchestrated by LiftPort president, Michael Laine.  Long time space elevator fans know that Michael has been involved in the Space Elevator effort since the early days.  Michael grew frustrated with the slow pace of carbon nanotube (CNT) development and decided to try and find something to kick-start the development of a Space Elevator.  The project he chose was to build a Space Elevator on the moon, something that can theoretically done with materials available today.  Michael and Liftport and the many allies & partners he’s gathered are making a serious attempt at this – something that all of us in the space elevator community should enthusiastically support. Michael and several of his key partners gave short presentations on the advantages of a Lunar Space Elevator and how something like this should be built.  It was serendipitous that Jerome Pearson was at this conference – after all, he was THE inventor of the idea of a Lunar Space Elevator and I don’t think anything would please him more than to see this idea actually get off the ground (to coin a phrase)…

If you want to find out anything more about this project, check out the LiftPort website.  Many of you might also know that simultaneously with last year’s Space Elevator Conference, Michael and Liftport raised money on Kickstarter to jump-start this project.  His initial goal was to raise $8,000.  By the time it was all said and done, he had raised well over $100,000 – the power of group funding!

After the workshop, it was time to watch the finals of the Space Elevator robotic competition that was being held at the Museum of Flight.  This is always a fun time, watching teams of children (up to and including high-school age) build robotic climbers to compete with one another for prizes donated by one of the Space Elevator Conference’s sponsors, Microsoft.  Jerome Pearson was asked, and graciously agreed, to announce the winners and hand out the prizes.  Many people in the audience, including competitors and their parents, were thrilled to be able to meet Jerome and get their picture taken with him.  It has been absolutely wonderful to have him at this year’s conference.

The day wound up with the annual Space Elevator Conference banquet.  This year it was held at the Charles Simonyi Space Gallery.  This Gallery hosts the Space Shuttle Trainer that was built to train the various Shuttle crews.  Every one of the crews from all 135 Shuttle missions were trained on this trainer.  It’s hard to imagine how big it is until you actually walk inside it.  While the front section was the subject of a guided tour (which I was unable to make), the back section, including the cargo bay, can be freely entered.  It’s an awesome sight.  And above the Trainer was a 50%-sized model of the Hubble Telescope hanging from the ceiling.  The Gallery is über-cool and it made it hard to concentrate on the excellent dinner we enjoyed.

So ends Day 2 – I eagerly await Day 3!

(The top picture thumbnail is of a train carrying several airplane fuselages from, presumably, one construction plant to another, a site we saw outside of the Conference windows while we were on break..  The Museum of Flight is located amidst much of the Boeing manufacturing plants.  The middle thumbnail is of Michael Laine and the Lunar Space Elevator project’s mascot, LSEI (Lunar Space Elevator Initiative) – it’s pronounced “Elsie”.  She even has her own Facebook Page!  The bottom thumbnail is of Jerome Pearson posing with one of the winning Robotic Team members.  You can view a full-size picture of any of the thumbnails just by clicking on them.)

2013 Space Elevator Conference – Day 1

Today, Friday – August 23rd, was the first day of this year’s annual Space Elevator Conference, hosted by ISEC.  For the second year in a row, it is being held at Seattle’s Museum of Flight, a truly outstanding venue for conferences such as ours.

We had a very full first day – several presentations, including a Keynote speech by one of the co-founders of the Space Elevator, American engineer Jerome Pearson, and a Tether-Climber workshop.

The day started out with a welcoming speech from the ISEC Conferences Chair David Horn, followed by a Space Elevator System Overview given by Dr. Peter Swan.  This was followed by a short ISEC Officers report (more about this in another post).

Then Jerome Pearson gave the Keynote address – Sir Arthur Clarke and the Space Elevator.  Jerome talked about his long relationship with Sir Arthur, how they met, how they worked together on projects, including Sir Arthur’s brilliant book The Fountains of Paradise and many other related topics.  His anecdotes about their relationship and other stories from Sir Arthur’s life were truly interesting.  Anyone who is a fan of the Space Elevator and/or Sir Arthur would see this speech as a “must-view”.  I video-taped it and, when I get home and can punch up the audio to a respectable level, I’ll post it on the ISEC YouTube channel for all to see.  Mr. Pearson has a brilliant and agile mind and it was very enjoyable to get to meet him again.  He is currently doing work with NASA (his EDDE project) to help remove Space Debris – a necessary and long-overdue task.

After a short break, Dr. Martin Lades gave a remote presentation (he is in Germany where he resides) on Climber-Tether Interfaces for a Space Elevator.  I think most people, when they think about the problem at all, just assume that you can equip a Tether-Climber with some sort of pinch-roller mechanism to propel the Climber up/down the tether.  Alas, it’s not so simple – the devil is always in the details.  The profile of the tether is very small and it is believed that a carbon nanotube-based tether will have a very low friction co-efficient.  Solving this with brute-force (i.e. having the rollers pinch the ribbon very tightly) introduce their own problems.  Dr. Lades discussed the various options which might be used to solve this problem.

Mechanical Engineer Larry Bartoszek (making his first appearance at a Space Elevator Conference in 9 years) then talked about the difficulty of Getting the Mass of the First Construction Climber under 900kg (something postulated in Dr. Edwards book).  The problem appeared difficult, if not impossible to solve 9 years ago, and little has changed today.  If a way is not found to solve this problem, then it may not be possible to have a series of construction Climbers “build up” the tether as originally envisioned – another solution will need to be found.  As with Dr. Lades presentation, Mr. Bartoszek showed us that the devil is in the details…

After lunch, Dr. Bryan Laubscher gave a presentation on various methods that might be used in Powering Space Elevator Climbers and the status / likelihood of each.  This was followed by Dr. John Knapman’s presentation on the First 40kms Danger and Approach.  Both presentations gave the audience an opportunity to further their understanding of how a Space Elevator might actually be constructed and operated.

Following these presentations and a break, the first workshop of the Conference then took place, this on Tether Climbers.  I gave a short intro and description of a possible “hybrid” climber (using a combination of conventional, laser and solar power) and this was followed by Dr. Knapman presenting the possibility of thinking of how to power climbers in terms of “Constant Power” rather than “Constant Speed” and the tradeoffs that would result.  Both of these brief presentations were to get the audience in the mind of thinking about alternatives when it comes to imagining how the Climbers would work.  The audience then broke up into 5 brainstorming groups where these ideas and others were discussed.  Each group then made a brief presentation about their deliberations and some very interesting ideas were proposed.  Dr. Peter Swan and Skip Penny are going to summarize these and post them on the ISEC website within 60 days.  Of course I’ll have a post here on the blog about it.

The day wound up with an Evening Mixer at the Museum of Flight’s Red Barn Gallery.

It was a wonderful first day and everyone who attended thoroughly enjoyed it – more tomorrow!

(Top picture thumbnail is of Jerome Pearson.  Bottom picture thumbnail is of Dr. Peter Swan (with an assist from David Horn) showing a scale model of the earth and a space elevator tether.  Click on either thumbnail to see a full-size version of the picture.)

Prophets of Science Fiction

An oldie, but still goodie, and, with the Space Elevator Conference coming up in just a few days, this seems apropos…

In 2011 and 2012, the Science Channel aired 8 shows in the Prophets of Science Fiction series.  Episode 4, originally aired on November 30, 2011, featured Sir Arthur C Clarke (my all-time favorite sci-fi author).

One of his best books was the Fountains of Paradise, Sir Arthur’s concept of a Space Elevator.  The show devotes a good portion of time to the concept and also to Michael Laine, head of LiftPort, and someone very active in the Space Elevator community.

You can see the movie as it is occasionally re-aired on the Science Channel and also, online, thanks to the awesomeness that is YouTube.

The Space Elevator segment starts at about 26:20 and the bit with Michael Laine starts at about 30:28.  Michael, incidentally, will be attending this year’s Space Elevator Conference as he usually does and I will look forward to seeing him again there.

Obayashi releases a video about the Space Elevator

The Japanese construction company Obayashi (remember them?) recently released a “conceptual construction” video about the Space Elevator.  You can view the webpage with the video here.  Actually, there’s no actual construction shown, but it’s a cool video nonetheless.

The webpage is in Japanese, of course, so if that’s not a language you can read, I would recommend you open up this page with the Google browser Chrome and let it translate it for you.  There doesn’t appear to be any audio however, but as I don’t understand Japanese, I don’t miss it.  But some music would have been a plus 🙂 There IS audio – lesson here is to have a headset plugged in AND properly configured. The music is very reminiscent of the Alan Chan video.

Carbyne – what do we have here?

This is truly interesting.  As reported in the paper Carbyne from first principles: Chain of C atoms, a nanorod or a nanorope? (and if I’m reading the paper correctly), the specific strength of Carbyne is on the order of 75 MYuris, well within the range needed to build an earth-based space elevator.

However, there does appear to be at least one fly in the ointment – material stability.  It seems that if you have more than one strand of Carbyne that contacts another one, cross-links will form and will degrade the material’s strength.  Money quote from the article; “…This barrier suggests the viability of carbyne in condensed phase at room temperature on the order of days…”  So, maybe not quite there yet.

I did a little net-sleuthing and found a short article/comment (Carbyne and other myths about carbon) by Dr. Harry Kroto, a co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel prize in Chemistry.  It is almost 3 years old and in it, he also raises the issue of material stability (to put it mildly).

Carbyne from first principles… has five authors.  Three of them (Dr. Boris Yakobson, Vasilii Artyukhov and Mingjie Liu) are also the authors of a paper in the current issue (Vol 2 / No 1) of CLIMB.  They also presented a paper at the 2011 Space Elevator conference which won an Honorable Mention in the Artsutanov competition.

I will be corresponding with these authors (and, hopefully, Dr. Kroto) over the next several days and will report back on what additional information I can glean – stay tuned!

(Hat Tip: Andy Price & Michael Fischer)