I’m slowly working my way through the wealth of material on the International Space Elevator Consortium’s (ISEC) website – it really has become, as Dr. Peter Swan puts it, a “Body of Knowledge” about all-things space elevator.

The number “eight” In Buddhism, the Noble Eightfold Path, is a core teaching for achieving enlightenment, comprising eight practices: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. It’s also the number of spokes on the Dharma wheel.

And did you know that in Chinese culture, the number eight is also associated with business success which is why the 2008 Beijing Olympics began on August 8, 2008 (08/08/08) at 8:08 pm?

In this post, I want to talk about another “eight” by highlighting David Raitt’s 2021 “Space Elevator Architectures“, a report published in the Quest journal (Volume: 28 #1). Raitt traces the space elevator’s evolution through eight distinct designs or Architectures. He begins with Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s 1895 vision of a tower to space as the first Architecture and describes each significant step along the way, culminating in the “Eighth Architecture”. This latest design integrates ISEC’s Galactic Harbour-based space elevators with rocket ships to provide both routine cargo hauling and specialized missions to provide a complete space transportation system (to borrow a phrase).

Raitt frames the space elevator not as science fiction, but as a visionary infrastructure project inching toward feasibility, grounded in over a century of evolving architectural thought. Rather than summarizing the eight Architectures (and risk leaving something out), I recommend reading the document itself. It’s an eminently readable 10 pages packed with information – perfect for history buffs like me.

For more on the “Eighth Architecture,” check out Cathy Swan’s “Modern Day Space Elevators” article in the June 2023 issue of Spaceflight, which explains its advantages in clear, accessible terms (and is where I borrowed the phrase “space transportation system” from).

We’re all waiting as fast as we can for the next steps toward making space elevators a reality—and just as the Buddhist Eightfold Path leads to enlightenment, the Eighth Architecture might illuminate the path to a new era of space travel. Happy reading!