There are interesting and wonderful possible applications for a Space Elevator and then there are ideas which just don’t seem to rise even to the level of fantasy. From the article: “…a brave new world could be built from the remains of our current one. The circumference of this construction– dubbed Globus Cassus, or ‘hollow sphere’ […]
Today I received the following email from Thilna Heenatigala, the General Secretary of the Sri Lankan Astronomical Association: “Fellow Earthlings, Sixty two years ago Arthur C. Clarke of the British Interplanetary Society sent a letter to the editor titled Peacetime Uses for V2 which was published in the 1945 February issue of the Wireless World […]
I received this media advisory today from Damir Hot, the Team Captain of UBC Snowstar: MEDIA ADVISORY | OCTOBER 10, 2007 UBC space elevator team unveils solar-powered prototype for $500,000 NASA competition What: Media preview of space elevator climber prototype When: Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007, 9 a.m. – Noon ONLY Where: UBC Physics and Astronomy Extracurricular […]
Longtime readers know that I am very interested in how Solar Power Satellites (SPS) might become a viable option for providing clean energy from space. According to the calculations I’ve done, it doesn’t seem like a realistic possibility. The sheer scale of the problem (i.e., how much electricity humanity consumes) means that SPS won’t be more […]
The Society for the History Of Technology (SHOT) will be holding it’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C. in October of this year. SHOT is an organization dedicated to: “…the historical study of technology and its relations with politics, economics, labor, business, the environment, public policy, science, and the arts.” This year, Professor W. Patrick McCray will be […]
Telstar 1, the world’s first active communication satellite, and also a product of the world’s first privately-sponsored space launch, was launched on this date in 1962. It’s hard to believe that we’ve only had this capability for 45 years. My kids have no idea what a world without this technology is like – just another […]
During the recent SESI 2007 Conference, Brad Edwards announced that a new European organization, EuroSpaceward, would be formed. I blogged about it during the conference (available here). The Space Elevator Reference is now reporting that this organization will; The activities being pursued by EuroSpaceward include assisting in the German Space Elevator games to be held in 2008, […]
For me, the “killer app” of Space Elevator Development has always been the economically viable deployment of Solar Power Satellites. It promises unlimited, clean energy from the sun, captured by SPS and beamed to earth-based rectennas and from there, channeled into the earth’s power grids. The problem has always been, as I understood it, getting […]
From the May, 2007 Newsletter; Michael Laine, President of LiftPort Group, has set a hard date by which we must turn this company profitable. We must produce 25k/month in revenue by September 1st or we will be dissolving the corporation. It’s possible. We have tons of books and other retail items yet to be sold, […]
Here is a book review of an effort that sounds interesting and amusing. According to the review, Space Elevators are mentioned in this book, but I have no idea how much or how seriously. Still, if someone is looking for reading material, this may fill the bill. Available at Amazon.com (and probably other places as […]
Peter and Cathy Swan have just released a new book which should be of great interest to the Space Elevator community. It’s entitled “Space Elevator Systems Architecture” and should satisfy the “geekiness” in all of us hard-core SE aficiandos… A description of the book, from Peter and Cathy; “Space Elevator Systems Architecture gives a new […]
It’s always a treat to find a new author to enjoy, and I think I’ve accomplished that in discovering Mary Rosenblum, the author of Horizons. This book is about how human civilization might develop and evolve in space, in places which are connected to earth via Space Elevators. I don’t want to spoil the plot, so I’m not going to summarize the book here – you can find […]
Readers of Arthur C. Clarke’s Fountains of Paradise or 3001 know of a structure he proposed; essentially a giant ring around the earth connecting multiple space elevators together. Something like this would provide an enormous increase in living space and a save haven for millions in the event of a planetary wide catastrophe. Paul Lucas […]
My all time favorite Sci-fi author is Sir Arthur C. Clarke. I do believe I’ve read every story he has written and am eagerly awaiting the completion and release of his “last novel” (The Last Theorem). His Fountains of Paradise was what introduced me (and countless others) to the concept of a Space Elevator. A couple […]
This review of a new book by Mary Rosenblum, Horizons, along with favorable comments about it on Amazon.com, have induced me to buy this book. I’ve posted before about how, IMHO, a very interesting sub-culture would eventually emerge on Space Elevator structures, and this book seems to have this idea as its background. If I […]
Somehow, my search engines missed this story from Alan Boyle’s Cosmic Log when it first came out – I didn’t run across it until today. It was posted on October 6th of last year. I’m pointing to this story just for the sake of completeness and also to augment the review I recently posted of Leaving The Planet by […]
This is a long overdue review of this book. Leaving the Planet by Space Elevator is co-authored by Dr. Bradley Edwards and Philip Ragan and is intended, according to the blurb about it on Amazon.com, to be “An easy guide to the most exciting development in space travel since the rocket. Stripped of the technical […]
Version 1.00 (the hopefully final version) of the Rulebooks for this year Space Elevator games have now been published. You can find the Tether competition rulebook here and the Climber competition rulebook here. Elevator2010 has sent an email to all interested parties (reproduced below, with the permission of Elevator 2010’s CEO, Ben Shelef), strongly encouraging […]
Recently, I had an (email) conversation with Ben Shelef, co-founder of Spaceward and CEO of Elevator2010. We discussed the recently completed Space Elevator Games and the ones scheduled for next year. Q. In your opinion, what was the most significant accomplishment of the 2006 Games? The most significant accomplishment was the scale of what happened – this was […]
This is the official LiftPort announcement about their long-awaited, newly released book.
Over at BillSaysThis, he posts a review of Iain M. Banks 1995 book Feersumm Endjinn. This SF novel, favorably reviewed by most readers at Amazon.com, revolves around descendents of a civilization that had built a Space Elevator. Be warned, this book is supposed to be fairly “heavy reading”, especially for a SF novel. Project #83 […]
I just ran across this interesting thread, discussing the possibilty (or not) of a Space Elevator. One of the contributors, an “nhughes1” (who states that he is a long-time Aerospace Engineer) declares that a Space Elevator is flatly impossible. The last post on the thread is nearly 9 months old. I’m not a Physics major, so […]
A book review of the Edwards/Westling book, The Space Elevator — A revolutionary Earth-to-space transportation system.pace Elevator — A revolutionary Earth-to-space transportation system.