According to the LaserFest website, today, May 16, 2010, marks the 50th anniversary of the laser.  First demonstrated by a team lead by American physicist Ted Maiman.

From Wikipedia:

In 1917, Albert Einstein established the theoretic foundations for the LASER and the MASER in the paper Zur Quantentheorie der Strahlung (On the Quantum Theory of Radiation); via a re-derivation of Max Planck’s law of radiation, conceptually based upon probability coefficients (Einstein coefficients) for the absorption, spontaneous emission, and stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation; in 1928, Rudolf W. Ladenburg confirmed the existences of the phenomena of stimulated emission and negative absorption;  in 1939, Valentin A. Fabrikant predicted the use of stimulated emission to amplify “short” waves;  in 1947, Willis E. Lamb and R. C. Retherford found apparent stimulated emission in hydrogen spectra and effected the first demonstration of stimulated emission;  in 1950, Alfred Kastler (Nobel Prize for Physics 1966) proposed the method of optical pumping, experimentally confirmed, two years later, by Brossel, Kastler, and Winter.  On 16 May 1960, Theodore Maiman demonstrated the first functional laser at the Hughes Research Laboratories,  capable of producing short pulses.

Of course lasers are what power the Climbers in the Power-Beaming Competition at the Space Elevator Games and lasers are, in all probability, going to be at least part of the power equation of a real Space Elevator.

The LaserFest website is very cool – lots of interesting videos and articles – it’s well worth a visit or two.

So, happy 50th birthday congratulations to the Laser!

(Hat tip to  Alan Boyle’s Cosmic Log)

(Update June 13, 2010 – Patricia C. has translated this article in Belorussian.  You can find that article here.  Thanks Patricia!)

A few days ago, NPR radio broadcast a segment on ‘Garage Inventors’.  Three of them were discussed and one was our very own Brian Turner – Captain and Fearless Leader of the Kansas City Space Pirates Climber / Power-Beaming team.

The segment is about 9 minutes long as is well worth listening to.  Check it out!

The photo thumbnail is of Brian working in his garage.  This was the cover of the July 1, 2007 NYTimes Magazine.  Click on it to see a full-size version.

Hat-tip for the NPR broadcast to Susan Seichrist – the designer of this blog’s masthead and, most definitely, Ben Shelef’s better half…

LaserMotive has a new website – a new, spiffy look to present to the world.  The home page includes several photos and a drawing (I’ve never heard of a ‘quadrocopter‘ before)  They also have a new slogan / catchphrase;

“Power on a Beam of Light“

I like it.

For those who don’t know, Team LaserMotive was the winner of $900,000 in the 2009 Climber / Power-Beaming competition – part of the Space Elevator Games held at the NASA Dryden facility in the Mojave desert.

With their winnings, they’ve now hired some people full time (chronicled here).  Their blog has several new entries, including this one discussing their first White Paper – using lasers to power UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles).

Make sure you check it out!

Registration is now officially ‘open’ for the 2010 Space Elevator Conference.  Following is a copy of the Press Announcement:

The Space Engineering and Science Institute Presents
2010 Space Elevator Conference
Redmond, Washington, USA
August 13 – 15, 2010
Sponsored by Microsoft Corporation
________________________________________

The 2010 Space Elevator Conference is a three-day conference to be held in Redmond, Washington at the Microsoft Conference Center on August 13-15, 2010.  The conference, focusing on all aspects of Space Elevator development, will engage an international audience of scientists, engineers, educators, managers, entrepreneurs, enthusiasts and students.

This conference will feature topical discussions in all of the Four Pillars of Space Elevator Development: Science/Technical, Political/Social, Legal, and Economic. In addition, we anticipate technical and speculative presentations on the topics mentioned below.  The evening of August 12th, a public presentation on the Space Elevator will be held at the Microsoft Conference Center.

We invite you to present a paper on a topic of your interest (details below). Check out the conference web site frequently for updates to the conference program and events as they are finalized over the coming weeks.  More details will be sent out as the conference approaches.

Registration is Now Open
Register Today to get the “Early Bird” registration discounts!

Conference to Include:

• A Free Public Space Elevator Presentation 7:00pm, August 12, 2010, Microsoft Conference Center
• Space Elevator Overview Presentation – the popular conceptual design
• NASA Centennial Challenges – Strong Tether Competition – A NASA challenge in materials engineering in which the tether provided by each team is subjected to a pull test to win a $2 million prize
• Carbon Nanotube Research – presentation on the progress of high strength CNT research
• Impact on the Future – transformations enabled by the Space Elevator, including exploration, using space resources to solve problems here on Earth, solar power platforms, extra-Terran bases, and colonization
• Road map Workshops – focusing on the four pillars of development
• Presentations of the Pearson and Artsutanov Space Elevator Prizes for the ISEC space elevator research paper competition
• Shotgun Science Session – science ideas not ready for prime time: rapid sequence, 5 min

______________________________________

 Abstract and Presentation Guidance

Abstracts must be in English, one page or less, and summarize a presentation suitable for the conference. We plan on collecting presentations in PowerPoint or PDF format, and offer them for purchase on CD after the conference. In addition, we encourage, but do not require, authors to submit papers that will also be included on the CD. The nominal length of the required final paper should be about 6-10 pages. Abstracts will be evaluated as they are received and authors will be notified of acceptance within five business days. The preferred procedure and format for abstract submittals for this conference is given on the Call for Papers page on our web site: http://www.SpaceElevatorConference.org.

For all submissions, please include the title, authors and affiliations, mail address, e-mail, and phone number of the corresponding author, and up to 10 key words.  Abstracts are due by May 28, 2010.  Final acceptance notices will by sent by June 4, 2010. Final drafts of the presentations and any accompanying papers, in specified formats, will be due two weeks before the conference, July 30, 2010.

Send your 2010 Space Elevator Conference abstract and paper submission inquiries to:
Technical Chairman:  Hugh Kelso (hkelso [at] mac.com)
Microsoft Chairman:  David Horn (david.horn [at] microsoft.com)

________________________________________

This conference is going to be the best one yet – make your plans now!

On March 21st, the LASER (Lego Bricks Activity and Space Elevator Race) competition was held in Tokyo, Japan.  This event, organized and sponsored by the Japan Space Elevator Association (JSEA), is an event that allows school children the opportunity to build and race Climbers, constructed entirely out of Legos.  This is the third time this event has been held and this year was named LASER ’10.

Mr. Hideyuki Natsume, the Director of this event, sent me the following details about the competition:

====================

Regulation of the competition is:

1. Climb vertical track of 25mm width, 7m high polyester-tether.
2. The Climber must be made of LEGO bricks.
3. The Climber must have a ‘residential module’ as would the future Space Elevator!
4. Award categories were speed, power(payload) and design of the Climber.

The winner of the competition were students from an elementary school!  It was very exciting event not only for the participants, but also the audience.

Overall Awards: (The total score of each category determines the award)

• 1st Place – Falcon Robots: Team Falcon Robots (elementary school students)
• 2nd Place – Falcons: Team Falcons (elementary school students)

Individual Category Awards:

• Speed Award: (For the fastest time to climb.(7m/14.2sec) – Falcon Robots: Team Falcon Robots (elementary school students)
• Power Award: (For the best efficiency(payload)) – Team Bahamut: Nihon Univ. Buzan Junior High School
• Mechanical Design Award: (For the best mechanism) – Team Snake: Nihon Univ. Buzan Junior High School
• SE Design Award: (For the best design for Space Elevator) – COSMIC BOX: Komazawa Gakuen Girl’s Junior High School

Special Awards

• Nihon University Award: (For the best presentation) – Eritakenchan: Yokohama city Nara Junior High School
• Team Play Award: (For the best team-work) – SKY-T: Komazawa Gakuen Girl’s Junior High School

We are scheduled for the next competitions this Autumn.  See you next LASER!

(About LASER and previous competition) LASER’09

For additional details, please contact us.
Team LASER ( info [at] jsea.jp )

LEGO is a trademark of ©The LEGO Group.

==========

In addition to sending me details about the competition, Natsume-san also sent me some photos which I’m including in this post.

	This is the venue where the competition was held at.  It is the Komazawa Gakuen Girl’s Junior/Senior High School Memorial Auditorium Inagi-city Tokyo, Japan.
This is a closeup of the climbing mechanism for the entrant that won the “Fastest Climber” Award – Falcon Robots: Team Falcon Robots
	And here is a closeup of the winning “Residential Module”, entered by COSMIC BOX: Komazawa Gakuen Girl’s Junior High School.
This photo shows the teams working with their ‘racetracks’ suspended from the auditorium ceiling.  The tethers were 7 meters high and 25 mm wide – think automobile ‘seatbelt’…
	And this photo shows the competitors, guests and staff of LASER ’10.  What a great photo!

.
(You can view larger versions of all of these photo thumbnails simply by clicking on them.)

Thank you again, Natsume-san, for sending me all of this information and congratulations to JSEA and all the contestants!

Once again, all together now;

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear Space Elevator Blog!
Happy birthday to you!

Four years ago yesterday, I started this blog. It’s been yet another exciting year. In keeping with my tradition of writing an ‘anniversary post’ (first year summary, second year summary and third year summary), the following is a list of, IMHO, the more significant happenings in the past 12 months that I was privileged to cover:

The Space Elevator Games has a winner!  After several years of ever-increasing competition requirements and competitor sophistication, The Spaceward Foundation and NASA awarded Team LaserMotive the very cool prize sum of $900,000.  This was for their >2meter/second run (which they did multiple times) in the 2009 Climber / Power-Beaming competition in the Space Elevator Games.  Coverage of these Games was extensive, both via the Internet, including uStream (which I was privileged to moderate along with Bryan Laubscher) and in the conventional media.  Kudo’s must also be given to the other two competitors in this competition, the Kansas City Space Pirates and USST.  Both of these teams have proved they’re very capable and I fully expect them to compete for the $1.1 Million dollars in prize money still available.  Plans for the 2010 Climber / Power-Beaming competition continue apace and will be announced here and at the official site of the Space Elevator Games when finalized.  In the Strong Tether Competition (the other half of the Space Elevator Games), a team from Japan brought the second, ever, carbon nanotube tether to the competition.  Though this tether was not strong enough to win a prize, it is a portent of things to come.  This year’s Strong Tether competition will be held, again, at the upcoming Space Elevator Conference (August 13-15) in Redmond, Washington.

ISEC becomes a real organization.  After spending some time ‘finding our way’, the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) finally emerged as a real force in the Space Elevator community.  I am privileged to be the President of this group and it is a real joy to be able to work with many of the movers and shakers in the Space Elevator effort.  We’ve adopted our first Strategic Plan and are in the process of making it happen.  Each year, we will adopt a space elevator-related topic as our theme for that year and focus our activities around it.  This year it is Space Debris Mitigation.  We have a ‘red team’ headed up by ISEC Director Peter Swan preparing a paper on this topic.  The Pearson prize will be awarded for the best paper presented this year on this topic.  This topic will be a theme at the Space Elevator Conference.  The ISEC Journal will also adopt this as a theme.  We have a Library Project underway, whereby we will create a central repository / search engine for the major papers and studies on this topic.  And finally, the ISEC Poster for 2010 will have Space Debris Mitigation as its theme.

Artsutanov and Pearson prizes announced.  I am particularly thrilled with this development.  Yuri Artsutanov and Jerome Pearson are two of the co-inventors of the modern-day thinking about Space Elevator design and operation.  ISEC is honoring these two innovators with prizes named after them.  The Pearson prize is $1,500 and will be awarded to that individual who submits the best paper on our 2010 theme; Space Debris Mitigation.  The Artsutanov prize is $2,500 and will be awarded to that individual who submits the best paper on any other Space Elevator related topic.  In addition, ISEC will invite these prize winners to the 2010 Space Elevator Conference to present their winning papers and receive their winnings.  ISEC will cover travel and lodging expenses for the winners.  Abstracts are beginning to come in and it looks like we’re going to have some very interesting papers created.  The deadline for abstract submission is May 15th and details for these prizes can be found on the ISEC website.

Japan – The Japan Space Elevator Association (JSEA) sponsored the first Asian Space Elevator Competition in August of 2009.  The winning team was from Germany.  In addition, JSEA, sponsored two Space Elevator competitions (LASER ’09 and LASER ’10) aimed at getting school children interested in the concept of a Space Elevator.  Finally, JSEA held its second annual Space Elevator Conference in December of 2009.  This is a very active group and we expect great things from them in the future.

EuroSpaceward Conference – I was able to attend the 2009 EuroSpaceward Conference (held in Luxembourg in December) and was privileged to be able to make a presentation on ISEC and our future plans.  This is the third year in a row that EuroSpaceward has hosted this conference, but it’s the first time I’ve been able to attend.  The conference was excellent; very informative and a lot of fun to be at.  They’ve just announced their fourth annual conference for Dec 4-5 of this year.  Markus Klettner heads up this organization and it, too, is very active in the Space Elevator effort.

The 2009 Space Elevator Conference.  This was the second year in a row that the conference was held at the Microsoft Conference center in Redmond, Washington and I’m very pleased to say that they will host the 2010 conference again this year (August 13-15).  The Conference facilities are outstanding and contributed to a most-excellent conference this past year.  With all of the ISEC activities we have planned for this year at the conference and, with the Strong Tether competition again being held at the conference, I think this year’s conference will be the best ever.

The Elevator2Space series debuted in 2009 and published a series of 26 episodes.  All of them are funny – it’s difficult to pick a favorite (though I really liked this one and this one and this one).  You can view all of the episodes on their website.  Very, very creative.

Other highlights include seeing Designs for a Space Elevator Base Station, honoring the 40th Anniversary of the first moon landing, the publishing of Space Tethers and Space Elevators and, of course, celebrating the announcement of the world’s first space elevator.

I’ve also enjoyed watching the traffic at this site continuing to grow.  This Space Elevator Blog has recorded well over 288,000 hits since we’ve begun and we’ve been visited by people from 185 different countries!  That’s not all of them, but we’re getting close ?

I also have to mention, again, the fun I had working with Ben Shelef of the Spaceward Foundation and the people at NASA (especially John Kelly and Andy Petro) in the planning and testing leading up to the Climber / Power-Beaming half of the Space Elevator Games.  As most of you know, this competition was held at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.  This is located inside of Edwards Air Force base in the Mojave desert in California.  It is one of the most Über-cool things I’ve ever been involved in.  I put up several posts about this (a couple are here and here), but just have to mention it again – it was unbelievably awesome!

Finally, this past year was special to me on a personal note; I welcomed my first grandchild and I turned 60.  I’m now, officially, getting old…

What will the next 12 months bring?  We have the Space Elevator Games (American and Japanese) to look forward to.  We have Space Elevator Conferences (American and European) to look forward to.  ISEC will continue to coordinate efforts in the Space Elevator arena.  And I’m sure we’ll be surprised by other activities in the Space Elevator effort.

If you want to get involved, join ISEC!  We are helping to push this magnificent concept forward, but we can only go as far as our member donations let us.  We need you – we need your membership donations – we need your enthusiasm and ideas.

Stay tuned!

I’ve read several books by David Brin and enjoyed them all.  This is the first time, however, I’ve seen a David Brin video (albeit a YouTube version).

He talks about future technologies, Space Shuttle fuel tanks representing a lost opportunity, tethers, solar sails and, briefly, Space Elevators.  He’s a skeptic of the idea of an Earth-based Space Elevator (calling it a ‘far out what if’) but is more positive about putting one on Mars.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG_xGzpSOfA[/youtube]

.

Some small nits;

• In his discussion of solar sails, he says that no one has tried to do this.  However, the Planetary Society has tried once – and failed – and is getting ready to try again.
• He gives the impression that the taper on a space elevator has to continue increasing from the ground all the way out to the counterweight.  If my understanding is correct, it only has to grow to GEO – from there the tether width can remain constant or even decrease.

LaserMotive has posted several updates at their blog recently and I’ve been remiss in not linking to them.

In this first post, LaserMotive welcomes a new resource, someone actually assigned to update their blog (I’m jealous).  Check out the post and welcome to Brian Beckley!

In the second post (Brian’s first), we get more details about the last-night weight loss that the LaserMotive Climber went through to try and win Level 2 of the Power-Beaming / Climber prize – a cool $1.1 Million.  With at least a portion of the Level 1 prize, $900,000, already assured, team LaserMotive could afford to go for (not) broke and trim everything they could off of their climber.  Read all of the details of the “Otis diet” here…

Finally,  we begin to see some of the fruits of the $900,000 won in the competition. Tom Nugent and Dave Bashford have now become full-time employees of LaserMotive.  Read all of the details here.

These guys are bright and they are motivated, and now they are funded.  I’m sure we’re going to see some really good results coming from them soon.

Congratulations again to Team LaserMotive!

So I’m working on the ISEC Press Kit.  We’re getting ready to announce our Pearson and Artsutanov prizes next week and I’m thinking (hoping) that we’ll get some flurry of activity at the ISEC web site.  We want to have some documents on the website readily available to the Press so that when they report about us, they have a fighting chance to get the basic facts straight.

One of my own misconceptions about the Space Elevator was that center of mass would have to be at Geosynchronous orbit (actually a bit above it as we want to have a net upward force on the ribbon so that attaching an Elevator Car to it would not cause the system to fall down).  However, it appears that we need to have the center of mass of the system above GEO even during deployment because “the increase in gravity for the low mass is greater than the decrease for the high mass“.  When you think about it, that makes perfect sense.

I took this quote from Blaise Gassend’s most excellent summary of this issue which you can find here.

And my thanks to Ben Shelef (CEO of the Spaceward Foundation – organizers of the Space Elevator Games) for pointing out my error and also this website.

Now, if I could just make sense of that pesky Coriolis effect thingy…

Happy New Year everyone and yes, there has been a dearth of posts lately.  Nothing’s wrong, nothing’s missing, nothing’s changed – just not a lot going on right now and everyone is busy with the holidays.

2009 was a heck of a year for the Space Elevator effort – highlighted by the fantastic success at the November Space Elevator Games (where $900,000 in NASA Prize money was won by LaserMotive) and ISEC getting it’s ‘sea legs’ and beginning to take an active role in unifying and shaping activities directed towards the development of a Space Elevator.  We also saw another carbon nanotube tether entered in the Spaceward/NASA’s Strong Tether Challenge, two sets of space elevator games run by the Japan Space Elevator Association (JSEA), conferences in the USA (by SESI & Microsoft), Europe (by EuroSpaceward) and Japan (by JSEA) and the publishing of the latest definitive word on the strength needed in a tether that could actually be used to construct a Space Elevator.

As cool as all that is/was, 2010 is shaping up to be an even more dynamic year for us.  As President of the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC), I’ve created a strategic plan for our organization and have submitted it to the Board of Directors for review and approval.  Once it is approved, it will be posted on the ISEC website.  We have some really exciting activities planned for this year.  If you aren’t already on the ISEC email list, I strongly encourage you to sign up.  It’s free and will guarantee that you’ll be among the first to know of our planned and happening activities.

And, I would be remiss if I were not to make another pitch for you to join ISEC.  We have lots of things that we want to do – how successful we’ll be will greatly depend on our level of funding.  You can help us help get a Space Elevator built – all of your donations will go directly towards Space Elevator development activities.

Finally, I want to re-post the very, very, very cool video (set to Carmina Burana) that Ben Shelef (CEO of the Spaceward Foundation – organizers of the Space Elevator Games) made summarizing the recently held Climber / Power-Beaming competition.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdcvX5wLYsQ[/youtube]

.

Stay tuned!

If he was still with us, Sir Arthur C. Clarke would have been 92 today, December 16th.  I assume that most readers of this blog know who Sir Clarke is, but, if by some chance you’re not, then you’re missing a treat.  Sir Clarke was one of the most prolific and one of the very best SciFi authors we have ever had the good fortune to enjoy.

His novel The Fountains of Paradise was the book that inspired me and many others to dream about a Space Elevator – and now many of us are working towards making that dream a reality through the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC).

The Planetary society recently had a program celebrating their own Planetary Radio’s 7th anniversary.  The bulk of the show was replaying a March, 2003 interview they had with Sir Clarke shortly after they began broadcasting.  This is a fascinating interview and well worth your time…  One of the items from the interview that I found very interesting was Sir Clarke’s revelation about how at lunch one day with JR Tolkien (of Lord of the Rings fame), Mr. Tolkien revealed to him how he came up with the idea of the “Hobbits” – funny stuff…

They also briefly discuss the Space Elevator and The Fountains of Paradise.

Incidentally, the host of the Planetary Society’s Radio Show, Mat Kaplan, shows that he’s always had ‘the touch’ when it comes to conducting interviews – Mat, you’re the best…

This YouTube Video is of Sir Clarke talking about the Space Elevator.

I was just able to locate the vinyl record of “Selected Readings” of The Fountains of Paradise that is shown and referenced in this video.  I’ve been looking for it for over a year – I love ebay…

The three photographs of Sir Clarke I’ve included in this post have been, in previous posts of mine about Sir Clarke, but for new readers they should prove interesting.  The first picture is of Yuri Artsutanov (on the left), one of the modern day ‘fathers’ of the concept of the Space Elevator, and Sir Clarke.  It is undated and I found it online (and, alas, the original location of it no longer exists so I can’t reference it or give credit to anyone for it).  The second is also a picture of Mr. Artsutanov and Sir Clarke from 1980 (the other “modern father” of the Space Elevator, Jerome Pearson, kindly emailed it to me).  The third picture is of Soviet (yes, at the time it was “Soviet”) cosmonaut Alexei Leonov and Sir Clarke at Sir Clarke’s 90th Birthday party.  I found this picture on Thilna Heenatigala’s blog.

Listen to the Planetary radio interview with Sir Clarke, watch the YouTube interview with Sir Clarke and, if you haven’t read The Fountains of Paradise, do yourself a favor and find it and read it – you’ll be glad you did.

Happy birthday Sir Clarke – we miss you and your boundless optimism for the future.  Someday we will make a Space Elevator and, if there’s any justice, it will be named the “Clarke Elevator”…

(Click on any of the picture thumbnails to see a larger version of the picture)

If you are like me and believe that humanity MUST get into space; to live, to explore, to declare our right to be an ongoing part of the Universe, then you’ll enjoy this video from Space Task Force.

“Is it me, or does it seem crazy, that even today, we have to justify sending people into space? The so-called “spinoff” argument. As we continue our series, Space 2010, we look at the most important spinoff of all — ourselves.”

As far as I know, it’s not on YouTube, so you’ll have to go to the Space Task Force site (or use my link, above, which does directly link to their video) to view/download it.

Over the past few months, I have received several emails detailing different ideas for Space Elevators, or Space Elevator translations, or general questions about Space Elevators, etc.

I’m very sorry I haven’t responded to most of them – these last few months have been very busy for me and for ISEC.  Now that the EuroSpaceward conference is completed and another project I’ve been working on will take a break starting next week, I’ll have some time to devote to these emails.

Thanks for understanding, and now back to our regularly scheduled programming…

And now for something completely different…

At last year’s EuroSpaceward Conference, Aage-Raymond Riise, ESA-ESOC (Germany) brought a demonstration of a”Longitudinal wave climber”, demonstrating how a climber could be made to go up and down a tether purely through the use of vibrating it at the proper frequency (I had blogged about it here).  At the 2008 Conference, Aage used a belt sander to vibrate the wooden tether to produce the necessary frequency.

He was back at this year’s conference with a new, improved model and I’ve included some photos (and another YouTube video) of the climb.

Rather than use a belt sander to induce the longitudinal waves in the tether (as he did last year), Aage this year used modified speakers.  This first picture shows one of the speakers (there were two), modified with a little tripold that transmitted the vibrations to the tether.

This second picture shows the overall view of the setup.  There were two poles, supported at the floor and ceiling.  The two speakers were mounted on the poles, one above the wooden tether and one below.  The tether was directly attached to the speakers so that when they “played”, the tether would vibrate.  If I understood Aage’s presentation correctly, he said that the speaker on top was controlled so that it was 180 degrees out of phase with the one on the bottom, thus creating a sawtooth wave that could be used to control the climber (if I’ve got this wrong, I’m sure I’ll be corrected and then I’ll update this post).

The last picture shows the ‘climber’ itself, attached to the tether.  The amount of force used to hold this climber to the tether was a very tricky adjustment.  They tried to make it work numerous times, adjusting the screws holding the climber clamps after each run.  They finally did get it to work and this is shown in the YouTube video, below:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScyrorE2uHM[/youtube]

At the 2008 Space Elevator Conference, a large contingent from the then newly-formed Japan Space Elevator Association (JSEA) showed up.  They blew us away with how much they had accomplished in so little time and wowed us with videos, TV-show recordings and Anime from Japan – all showing how well-accepted the idea of a Space Elevator (aka the “Space Train”) is in Japan.

At this year’s EuroSpaceward conference, the Japanese are again here in force and are, again, wowing all of us with how successful they have been.  This past year, they have run two Space Elevator competitions (JSETEC and LASER ’09) and next week will be hosting their second conference (in Japanese only – no translators this year).  Shuichi Ohno, the President of JSEA gave a presentation about what JSEA has been doing this year and brought with him a sample climber made out of LEGO’s.  You can actually buy a Space Elevator LEGO kit in Japan now from JSEA – now THAT’s organized).  I’ll have to see if we can do this in the US too – I can’t think of a better way to get children interested in the concept of a Space Elevator (except, perhaps, to have a Family Guy or South Park episode based on a Space Elevator – actually, that’s not a bad idea…).

They have also published a Space Elevator introductory pamphlet and Shuichi showed a video made summarizing JSEA and it’s activities and it was marvelously well done.  I’m working on getting permission to upload it to YouTube and then I can share it with all of you.

The first picture is of Shuichi while the second is of the LEGO Climber.

I’m very glad the Japanese are here, but they sure set the bar high…

(Again, click on any of the picture thumbnails to see a larger version of the picture)

And, some pictures from the conference.  I’m not going to be posting pictures of everyone who spoke – that will be for later on the Space Elevator Blog photo album.  But there were a couple of note that I want to post now.

The first picture is of Dr. Jordin Kare, co-founder of the LaserMotive team that just won a cool $900K at the recently held Space Elevator Games at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.  He spoke about his team’s experiences in getting ready for the Games and their experience at the Games.  It’s always a pleasure to listen to an expert speak in his/her area of expertise and Jordin is a good guy.

One of the Games anecdotes he related was that, at the end of the first day and their team had just completed two successful climbs, one of the team members (Steve Beland) asked “Test” (Mike Kapitzke at the NASA Control group) if it was “OK to breathe”.  “Test” was in charge of all activities (and did a fantastic job) and so the request to “breathe” was jokingly asked, of course.  Without missing a beat, “Test” responded “Yes, but shallow breaths only”…

And, one other anecdote I want to relate about Jordin (and his wife Mary Kay – aka “Team mom”).  At Domingo’s restaurant where we all gathered Friday night to celebrate (I blogged about this here), I sat across the table from Jordin and Mary Kay.  Mary Kay had a drink waiting for Jordin when he arrived and Jordin looked at her and said “Dear, you are the light of my life“.  I then heard him mutter “Actually, the light of my life is 808 nanometers” (the wavelength of the LaserMotive laser)…

This next picture is of Dr. Martin Lades, team member (albeit long distance as he is now living in his native Germany) of the Kansas City Space Pirates.  Martin gave his perspective on the good and the bad of the KCSP performance and made the interesting comment that the only reason they didn’t climb the full kilometer is that they were not able to fully collimate (dial-in) their beam to that distance because they didn’t have sufficient time to do so (the Laser Clearing House had called a halt to testing the previous day).  If that’s true (and I have no reason to doubt that it is), then KCSP should have even more reason to be optimistic for the next Games – they were pretty close as it was.

This last picture in this post is of Andreas Hein, from the WARR Space Elevator team; out of the Technical University of Munich, Germany.  Andreas has been a regular at the conferences and he’s a typical Engineering guy.  Wednesday evening, several of us were at the bar discussing things in general and I happened to mention reading Michel van Pelt’s new book (I blogged about it here) and the concept of the Aerovator.  Andreas had not heard of this before and, after asking me a couple of questions about it, went silent.  When I looked at him a few minutes later, he was filling up a napkin with equations and “what ifs”, trying to understand how it worked.  I took pity on him and went back to my room and got the book for him.  I just hope he returns it before he leaves 🙂

The WARR team was the winning climber at the recently completed JSETEC games in Japan – they totally blew away the competition having a time which was nearly three times as fast as their nearest competitor.  I blogged about this before – including linking to a YouTube video of one of their climbs.

Andreas talked about this, which was very interesting, but later gave a second presentation which was, to me, even more interesting.  He made a brief financial case of how a Space Elevator could take over the satellite-to-GEO market.  This is exactly the kind of thing I have been looking for and I’m going to put Andreas together with the ISEC Business consultant (Ed Gray – are you listening?) and see if we can turn this into a formal proposal.

Good stuff all around…

(As always, you can click on any of the picture thumbnails to see a full-size version)