Monthly Archives: October 2007

The field narrows…

In the last few days, two of the teams which had entered the Climber / Power-Beaming event at this year’s Space Elevator Games have announced they will not be competing this year.  Donald Longerbeam’s Starlifters dropped out, citing financial issues, while just today, Michael Harvey and the Andromeda Connection threw in the towel, citing problems in getting solar cells capable of handling their MOLPSol “laser”.

This winnowing out is a normal process; it occurred in both the 2005 and 2006 Space Elevator Games – not every attempt to build and power a Climber is successful.  And it gets harder each year as the requirements continue to become more stringent.

But not to worry; there are several teams who have already demonstrated their teams capabilities and will be competing.  This year’s events will be, by far, the most competitive in the history of the Space Elevator Games.  We’ll be seeing teams using, for the first time, both laser and microwave propulsion systems and we’ll see how quickly this technology is advancing.

But I must say that I hope that the Starlifters will continue to attend our weekly chat session – they were always so cheerful and upbeat and just a joy to be around 🙂

Interview with Spaceward’s Ben Shelef

Ben was interviewed by Paul Plack from Aero-News a couple of weeks ago.  It’s a fine interview and will give the listener an overview of what is going to happen at the upcoming Games, a history of how we got here and a bit about the Spaceward Foundation itself.

The interview is 18 minutes long and can be found here.

(The picture is of Ben and is from the 2006 competition – Ben was holding an all-hands meeting for the teams and was going over logistics and ground-rules.  I’m sure we’ll have several such meetings this year, too.  Click on the picture for a larger version.)

Dates revised for the First European Workshop on Space Elevator Climber and Tether Design

I recently received this email comment from Markus Klettner of EuroSpaceward on my previous post about the dates for the EuroSpaceward workshop being finalized and I thought it was worth it’s own posting:

“Dear Ted

In order to keep you busy (sorry for that) and to respond to requests of university students and young engineers we have advanced the First European Workshop on Space Elevator Climber and Tether Design in Luxembourg to the weekend of November 10-11, 2007.

Find the updated programme in English and French at the website of EuroSpaceward: http://eurospaceward.org/images/workshop-flyer.pdf

The detailed programme of the workshop with the titles of the lectures will be announced later this month..

Kind regards

Markus”

So, (re)mark your calendars.  Wish I could go to this – I’d love to meet the European crowd and see what they’re doing, but I’ll have already been to two Space Elevator events this year.  One more and my wife will divorce me 🙂

Still another use for Duct Tape?

LaserMotive ran into a serious problem recently.  You can read about it on their blog.

If this had happened 3-4 months ago, it would have been long forgotten by now, I’m sure.  Happening now, however, it becomes a major issue.

I vote for Duct Tape (“If it moves when it shouldn’t, use Duct Tape – If it doesn’t move when it should, use WD-40”).  Seriously.  I think it would be perfect for this.  And, there’s precedent for it in the US Space Program.  From the Wikipedia article on Duct Tape:

“Duct tape’s versatility and holding power are evidenced by its nickname in engineering circles: “the ultimate material.” It is commonly used in situations that require a strong, flexible adhesive, particularly when exposure to the elements is a concern.

NASA engineers’ faith in duct tape as an emergency tool was rewarded in 1970, when the square carbon dioxide filters from Apollo 13‘s failed command module had to be modified to fit round receptacles in the lunar module, which was being used as a lifeboat after an explosion en route to the moon. A workaround was made using duct tape and other items on board Apollo 13, with the ground crew relaying directions to the spacecraft and its crew. The lunar module CO2 scrubbers started working again, saving the lives of the three astronauts on board.

In case of “acute psychosis” during a space mission, NASA procedures call for the use of duct tape to restrain the astronaut. [4]

Keith Canfield, who designed the scrubber modification in just two days, said later that he knew the problem was solvable when it was confirmed that duct tape was on the spacecraft: “I felt like we were home free” he said in 2005.”

(Click on the ribbon picture or visit the LaserMotive blog for a larger version)

03 October update – this suggestion, of course, is slightly tongue-in-cheek.  Check out the LaserMotive blog for my real suggested solution…