This is a recent posting on the LiftPort Blog, one I had touched on very briefly before, but one which deserves a separate mention here.
Michae Laine list 9 things that each of us may be able to contribute to, in order to help further this cause. He leaves the 10th one open (“intentionally blank”) to ask for our input. It’s a thoughtful list and I urge readers to review it and consider what they may want to contribute to this effort.
A similar theme was sounded by Bryan Laubscher at the recent SESI2007 Conference. At the very end of the conference, the discussion turned to “what we all can do” to help further this along. No one had any brilliant ideas, but everyone agreed that publicity (in all forms, from helping out conferences, to presenting papers, to lobbying your congressman and NASA, to whatever else you can think of) was very important.
A recent posting on the National Space Society’s Space Elevator Special Interest Chapter said that there were “50 to 60 individuals of various backgrounds that would be interested in helping with the SE effort on a volunteer basis”. One thing I might suggest to them is that they create an entry in the upcoming Space Elevator Games – this IS developing technology which will be applicable to the real Space Elevator, whenever it is built…
Of course, if someone can write a check for a million dollars or two for some basic research here, you can help out too…