If you want to know what’s going on in the mind of LiftPort’s Michael Laine these days, it’s not necessary to interview him – just check out his prolific blog postings over the past few days (here and here and here and here and here and here and here – and probably some more by the time I’ve posted this 🙂 )

Or, you could just subscribe to the LiftPort Blog postings…

During the recently completed SESI2007 conference, I gave a presentation on who, IMHO, would build the first earth-based Space Elevator.  I identified several likely candidates and then narrowed it down to two possibilities; a consortium of US businesses which had struck a deal with the US Government or a Joint Venture between the governments of Dubai (part of the UAE) and India.  Without going through the whole presentation, my reasons for this conclusion were this; while the Space Elevator is a source of enormous potential wealth, no government (Dubai/India excepted) would take the risk to build it.  Rather, I had identified American business entrepeneurs as people who might well take this risk, but also thought the same about the government of Dubai.  This government has much in common with corporations, being flexible, adaptable and able to make decisions without resorting to a myriad of committees.  With them having the vision to drive the project (and the finances to pay for it), they need a partner.  India struck me as the right one; they are an emerging country, possessing an increasingly well-trained and technological-savvy work force.  They are a nuclear power and have a real military and a real space program.  They also have direct sea-lane access to two of the six potential Earth Port sites, including a favored one off the west coast of Australia.  But I had one more reason for picking them, their long-standing rivalry with China.  I think India would do much to leapfrog China and participating in the building a Space Elevator would be a perfect project for them.

I bring this all up now because of this blog posting from Centauri Dreams.  Scientist and Sci-Fi author Gregory Benford recently took a trip to the Asian subcontinent and wrote an absolutely fascinating account of his journey.  It has several connections to the Space Elevator (though none are explicitly mentioned).  First, he meets with Arthur C. Clarke, the person who is most responsible for the popularization of the idea.  Second, he describes India as an awakening giant and has this to say about their rivalry with China;

“Similarly, the Indian space program sees itself as a rival to China, not to the US or Europe. It will be amusing if audacious moves in space come from Asia as a regional competition, just as the US-USSR contest drove the first decades.”

This strikes me as absolutely accurate, though not very amusing.  And, as an aside (and something I forgot to mention in my presentation), India will be hosting this years International Astronautical Congress (for the second time), a convention that, in the past, has had a Space Elevator theme as one of its tracks.

Finally, as I blogged about many months ago, I attended a Skeptics conference last year, one where this same Gregory Benford was a speaker.  In a Q&A session after his presentation (and in a private conversation after that), he and I talked about a Space Elevator.

Just an interesting coincidence perhaps…

Read the blog entry; it truly is fascinating.  And remember what I predict about Dubai (UAE) and India – you heard it here first.

I can’t remember when I have enjoyed a comment thread more than the one attached to this Blog posting.

Jeremy is convinced that current efforts to build a Space Elevator are a sign of the imminent return of Christ.  Brian Dunbar, from LiftPort, tries to gently engage him in some rational conversation.  For his pains, he’s told that he’s trying to interpret scripture with a “carnal mind” and that he’s persecuting Jeremy…

For shame, Brian… 🙂

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 discusses this and other megastructures in this very interesting web posting.  People who “think big” enough to be comfortable with the idea of a Space Elevator should also be comfortable with other concepts Mr. Lucas discusses.

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 ever become a fiction author (and the thought has crossed my mind more than once), this is the subject I’d probably tackle first – I think it is fascinating grist to be explored.

Once I’ve read this book, I’ll post my own review of it.

(Click on the thumbnail for a larger version of the book cover)

Over at BlogCritics, there’s an interesting set of comments on Dr. Brad Edwards latest venture (including comments from both Dr. Edwards and Michael Laine, among others).  It’s worth a read…

(PS – there’s actually nothing in there about the Easter Bunny – I just thought it looked good in the Title)

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.

At the National Space Society, Bert says that it “makes sense to set up the first space elevator on the moon.”

Over at E’S FLAT, AH’S FLAT TOO, Rahul relates how Professor Mark Welland, FRS, considers the idea of Space Elevator to be nonsense; “any undergraduate physics student could tell you why it was nonsense and this sort of irresponsible hype in the press had done great damage to nanoscience.”

I googled Dr. Welland, and he certainly does seem to have a lot of credentials.  I am going to attempt to contact Dr. Welland and ask him why the idea of a Space Elevator is “nonsense.”

On the LiftPort Blog, Tom Nugent has posted some thoughts as to which nations, more than others, might see Solar Power Satellites (SPS) as being very valuable from a national security perspective.

I completely agree.  I think that deploying SPS is the “killer app” for a Space Elevator.  I also think it’s a reason why being first in deploying a Space Elevator might not be the huge advantage its often touted to be.  For example, I could see a country, like Japan, deploying their own Space Elevator(s), even if others already exist, just from a Security standpoint.

Over at Colony Worlds, Darnell Clayton gives us his “Top 10 reasons” for Not Building a Space Elevator.  Commenters have added some more.

Come on everyone, let’s get creative!!

Of COURSE this is a good idea.  As someone who has ridden Space Mountain perhaps a bit too often (“Mommy, why doesn’t Daddy want to go on any other rides?”), Disney and a Space Elevator go together like Fish and Chips and Ham and Eggs (apologies to all of the Vegans out there…).

But I don’t see it happening by “January of 2007″…

Over at the LiftPort Blog, Manuel Antonio Cuba (Latin American Research Coordinator) has posted a very interesting analysis of comments relating to the Space Elevator concept that were posted on Spanish-language sites.  It’s too long for me to summarize his analysis in a short blog posting, so I recommend that you jump over there and read it for yourself.  One set of statistics that stood out, though, were that “3 % of people who made negative comments think that we should burn in hell.”  I’m not going to worry about that one too much…

Over at LiveScienceBlogs, a short summary of the NASA committment to $4 Million in Space Elevator Games Prize money and a mention of the LiftPort 1.0 Roadmap.

Nothing really new, but it’s great to see the continual spread of information…

The Space Elevator will be used to allow both inhabitants of Pluto to secede from our solar system to a “softer, gentler solar system”…

Over at Accelerating Future, Michael summarizes some of the current and near-future alternatives to today’s Rockets.  His thinking / summary of space elevator technology is a bit out-of-date, but it’s still an interesting posting.

Both Brian Dunbar and I have commented upon some of the more current thinking to his post…

Keith Henson proposes “…the design of a moving, non-tapered space elevator cable threaded through a system of pulleys that increase the number of supporting strands as the space elevator approaches geostationary orbit (GEO)”.

He gives a link to, I guess, a posting of this paper on the LiftPort forums but for some reason I can’t access it.  I know the idea of a pulley system has been floated around in the past – this is just the latest posting I’ve seen on this subject.

Until I can read the actual paper, I can’t comment on it.  But the abstract, accessed here, sounds interesting…

A rebuttal from David Stodolsky states that “While solar power satellites could make a contribution, they are not going to solve climatic problems. And as ongoing European Space Agency studies show, no new technology, such as space elevators is needed to activate the plan.”

Oh really?

I’ve posted links to stories before, stories that have a Space Elevator theme.  This one is a bit different, and the Space Elevator is only used as a backdrop.  But I think it works.

I understand that in the early days of cruise ships, a “culture” did emerge, complete with expected practices and ceremonies.  Now that they’ve become more affordable and more commonplace, that’s all gone.  If the Space Elevator ever starts transporting tourists, perhaps a similar culture may also emerge as polish_sausage theorizes…

Well now I know we’ve arrived, or, have at least become mundane.  From ghosts & admissions:

“SBM-Single Brown Male 20- Looking for woman aged 18-23.
Looking for someone with strong math comprehension who can assist in his space elevator design. Prefers someone who looks good in zero gravity and has a firm grasp on nebular dynamics.”

Can Dr. Phil be far behind?

I use FeedDemon 2 to do the majority of my web-searching for Space Elevator-related items.  Most of the items it flags for me are current, or relatively so.  But once in a while it finds something that is several months old (or even older).

Such was the case today when it found a blog posting from October, 2005, talking about a modification to the PC-based game; Space Empires IV.  This modification adds, among others, the following “racial trait” to the game;

“Megascale Masters – Your race has mastered the art of managing huge megascale construction projects. Your economy will get an early boost from the construction of space elevators, and larger ship hulls will help you as the game progresses.”

I had earlier reported how the Space Elevator (the ruins of one) will be in the newest version of Halo.  This mod to Space Empires IV seems to be yet another indication that the idea of Space Elevators is becoming more well known.  And, if we can introduce this idea to a bunch of gamers, then LiftPort will have a steady supply of all the new techno-geeks that they will need 🙂

Seeker, JJ, over at Yahoo! 360 thinks that “We are on the threshold of a space elevator…”.

schmoo on the run thinks the future is with “space lifts” over the Shuttle (and yes, I speak American)…

Over at Tam-Bram, Thank You Ma’am!, Dishkyaon has posted a rather unique take on what a bored AI in charge of Space Elevator operations might do for kicks.  It’s in the form of a short story and, IMHO, is well worth reading…

There have been a lot of blogger posts about the Nicola Pugno study.  Rather than continue to put each one in a separate entry, I’m going to combine them in this one.

02JUN06

At Advanced Technology, David Louisa is optimistic…

At Space.QJ.Net, they’re concentrating on which channel of Muzak should be playing.

Space.com’s take on it…

31MAY06

Over at The End of the Universe, Captain Xerox (copy that) is all doom-and-gloom…

29MAY06

Eric Zorn is a columnist at the Chicago Tribune and he’s one of my favorite reads.  In his blog “Change of Subject“, he wrote this: “The idea of a space elevator was popularized in science fiction, where writers envisioned a 100,000-kilometre-long cable stretching straight up from the Earth’s surface and fixed in a geosynchronous orbit. Payloads, or tourists, would simply ascend the cable into low-Earth orbit, eliminating the need for rocket launches.” Nature.com discusses the latest research. (via Digg)“.  The Nature.com story is, of course, the negative one saying that a carbon nanotubes won’t work because of their “inherent defects.”  It’s nice to have the Space Elevator mentioned by someone with such a large audience, but anyone looking at only this story will not see the other side of the story.  I left a comment directing people to my blog – others may wish to point his readers to other information.

28MAY06

At sciscoop.com, Chad quotes Clarke’s First Law in response.

27MAY06

At Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds is not discouraged.

Neither is Brent Kearney.

Bill Christensen at Technovelgy.com weighs in…

26MAY06

The Slashdot crowd weighs in with several hunred comments in their thread on the subject…

25MAY06

Skeptipundit says “…does seem that there are some new challenges to overcome.”

Colony Worlds opines that it’s much too soon to draw conclusions.

Tom Nugent at LiftPort is not discouraged.

At the Velcro City Tourist Board (cool name, that), he’s disappointed but not discouraged.  He also weighs in on the Space Pier option.

futurismic’s Armchair Anarchist says we’ve created a blogstorm.

LiftPort’s Brian Dunbar says that nothing has really changed.

24MAY06

At My Corner of the Universe, blogger Cameron Peters hopes that despite the objections of Nicola Pugno, he’ll still be able to take a ride in a Space Elevator.

At advanced nanotechnology, blogger Brian Wang weighs in with his opinion, that the Space Pier is a superior concept and can be built with today’s materials.

22MAY06

At Pop Philosophy, Daniel Moore comments.

Hyperion Court weighs in on Space Elevators, including the latest controversy.  As always, Brian was there ahead of me.

One of my favorite websites is Anthonares.  The current essay responds to Nicola Pugno’s article claiming that Space Elevator’s are impossible with today’s technology (including carbon nanotubes).  The author, Anthony Kendall, is not dismayed by Pugno’s claims and offers his take on how the issues raised might be addressed.

In this article from Texas A&M Engineering, the Centennial Challenge competition is briefly discussed.  The article talks about an unnamed team, which I believe is the Canadian Snowstar team.  With all the teams coming from Texas, one would think they would have discussed one of them.

Cheese (another guy from Wisconsin?) speculates on the role of a Space Elevator in the development of Space Industries.

If you think it’s impossible to put “Space Elevator”, “Wisconsin” and “green men” into the same sentence, take a look at this.  And teebee’s not happy about it either.

Brian Dunbar alert – Is LiftPort plotting a move to Sheboygan anytime in the near future?