Miscellaneous updates – 1

Lots of Space Elevator items have been posted on the web in the past several weeks, items I’ve neglected to mention as I’ve been concentrating on the upcoming Space Elevator Games and Space Elevator Conference, so today and tomorrow I’ll be doing some ‘summary posting’ of some of these items:

First, of course, is a Status update from the Games themselves, posted on the official website of the Games…

A new “Space Elevator” (of sorts) has made it to the movies.  There is a new movie coming out “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief” which, incidentally, some Hollywood blogs are all upset about because they say it is a ripoff of the Harry Potter movies.  In a trailer for the movie, Percy is shown entering an elevator at the Empire State Building, but the elevator car blasts through the top of the building and all the way to Mount Olympus.  We don’t actually see the “Space Elevator” of course…

The idea of an inflatable space elevator has been making the rounds lately.  There were several postings about this, one of the more complete ones is here (with some comments on it here).  While I haven’t given it a lot of thought, it sounds a bit dicey to me.  It will be only 20 kilometers high and supposedly be kept vertical by the use of “stabilizers and gyroscopes” and will withstand the force of hurricanes by “leaning into them”.  Supposedly you could also save some rocket fuel by lifting the components up to the top of the tower and then launching them from that point.  However, no numbers are given as to how much could be lifted, how often, etc.  I wish them success…

Another type of Space Elevator recently proposed was the “Rotating Space Elevator” a method to use centrifigal force to power climbers ascending the structure.  This sounds cool, of course, as it’s essentially free power, but I don’t think it’s practical – I don’t think that enough force is generated to lift anything useful.  But I will admit I’ve only glanced at this article in a cursory manner and perhaps I’ve missed something.  So many Space Elevator concepts, so little time…

During the first round of testing at Dryden, there was a “Press Day” where NASA had local columnists and camera crews come out and visit.  I made a presentation to them and then they visited the workshop where teams had set up plus the testing operations out on the lakebed.  One of the stories is here, complete with a couple of pictures of  the NSS and University of Michigan team climbers.

All for now – more miscellany tomorrow…