It’s been exactly ten years since my last blog post. Ten. Years. Ten freakin’ years. Holy moly, time flies. Much has changed in my life: I’ve moved, made lifestyle changes, jumped back into software engineering, among other twists. But the space elevator? That fascination never faded. I kept www.spaceelevatorblog.com alive while so many other space elevator sites bit the dust.

And yet it’s hard to blame the people who’ve moved on. Ten years on, not much has shifted. Tether tech’s stalled—Toray’s 4 MYuri fibers still rule. No one’s spun a new material longer than a few centimeters that beats it, let alone hits the 30-50 MYuri we need for an Earth-based elevator. Without that, we’re still dreaming, not building.

So why revive this blog now? Enter Mr. Mordy Friedman from Etheria Space. He contacted me a few days ago, and we had a great chat about his plans to relaunch the Space Elevator Games in the U.S. Over to Mr. Friedman:

“Our current plan is to launch the competition with a demonstration in 2025 (ideally at ISDC) to generate awareness and recruit teams and sponsors. We then aim to scale up for 2026 with a mile-high climber competition, structured in two classes: climbers with onboard power and those using power beaming. The onboard power competition is designed to increase participation and explore diverse climbing methods, while the power beaming competition, which is more challenging, will be the main focus, driving the development of this crucial technology. We are still working on the tether competition, looking for a way to make it compelling enough to drive the right development in that area.

This relaunch is being framed as a continuation of the games, building on the past games and the ongoing efforts in Japan, but expanding it into a global effort in collaboration with ISEC (USA), JSEA (Japan), and TUM (Germany) and hopefully others.

For anyone interested in learning more, or getting involved, they can reach out at contact@etheriaspace.com.”

He also emphasizes that all of this is very preliminary and subject to change.

Ambitious? You bet. Can he pull it off? We’ll see. I’m rooting for him, offering my old contacts, Spaceward rulebooks, and whatever else I can dig up from my ISEC and blogging days. It’s reason enough to dust off this site. Plus, him pinging me right at the 10-year mark? The Universe is winking—and who am I to argue with the Universe?

 

There’s plenty to unpack in the space elevator world—tethers, climbers, games, and more. I’ll roll it out over days and weeks. Join me—we’re climbing again.