The third and final workshop of the conference was put together to flesh out an initial Space Elevator Architectures and Roadmaps document put together by Michael Fitzgerald (“Fitzer”), the champion of this topic – the 2014 (current) ISEC Theme. Fitzer was in overall charge of this workshop and is going to be heading up the […]
I received the following “post-Games thoughts”, as well as the three photos in this post, from Akira Tsuchida, captain of Team E-T-C, Earth-Track-Controllers. In addition to building a prototype of a Space Elevator which they entered in this year’s Games, they also have a pretty cool day job, tracking the International Space Station (ISS). I […]
LaserMotive was one of two Laser-powered teams in this year’s games. I had great hopes for their performance, but alas, things did not work out well for them. I’ll be posting more about them in the future (along with some videos and pix I have). This is from the LaserMotive blog: “Back From Utah, and […]
Here’s a link to a story on SpaceRef.com about the new head of the X Prize Foundation. Though the story does not deal explicitly with the Space Elevator, Elevator2010 did partner with the X Prize Foundation for the 2006 Space Elevator Games and may again do so this year.
Today marks nine full years that I’ve been hosting and authoring the Space Elevator Blog and I’m going to call it quits, at least for the time being. I have several other projects on my plate and I’m not getting any younger… Being a part of the effort to promote the idea of a space […]
Welcome to this edition of Weekend Walkabout. In this post, we visit India Thailand to see a ‘possible competitor’ to a space elevator, then journey to Japan to see the latest with our favorite anime series, Gundam, and then wind up in what can only be described as “Fantasy Land”. There’s also a programming note […]
Yes, I said that my next post was going to be on tether capacities and power systems, but that can wait – a new space-elevator themed book is available! Celestial Phoenix is written by new (I think) author A. P. Williams and is available on Kindle at Amazon. Be warned – this book is NOT […]
This Weekend Walkabout continues to catch up on some things I didn’t blog about while I was taking my holiday break. We start off by hypothetically shooting things into the sun, then learn about the latest success from the Indian space program and wind up in Canada – learning about the Hudson Bay Space Elevator… […]
A study was recently released by the Journal Interface which showed that the teeth of Limpets contained the strongest material yet found in nature. This material has been measured to have a tensile strength of 3.0 to 6.5 GPa, stronger than spider-silk (the previous champion) and approximately the same strength as the carbon fibers produced […]
This video is much in the news lately… I first saw this video at the 2014 ISEC Space Elevator Conference. Michael Laine, the driving force behind LiftPort, gave a short talk at the conference and showed this video. I’m not sure if the one now viewable on YouTube is an updated version from the one […]
In this edition of Weekend Walkabout, we take an eclectic journey from telescopes, to SETI to music about how to deal with earth’s garbage… I’m sure that one of the reasons I was susceptible to the idea of a Space Elevator was my early interest in Astronomy. The brief introduction I had to it in […]
According to Wikipedia, a “Walkabout” is “…a rite of passage during which male Australian Aborigines would undergo a journey during adolescence and live in the wilderness for a period as long as six months“. But a Walkabout is also, according to the Urban Dictionary, “…a spontaneous journey through the wilderness of one’s choosing in an […]
For the past several months, Wikistrat has been working on building forecasts for the private space industry. One of their scenarios has been projecting how a space elevator might come about. In the opening words from their report: In February 2014, Wikistrat ran an internal simulation led by Bruce Wald, former director of the U.S. […]
Something else to put on my reading list… American Author Jason Hough has penned a trilogy which seems to have not one, but two space elevators as central objects in the plot. The Dire Earth Cycle, released in three parts in July, August & September of 2013 (yes, I know, I’m late to this, but […]
Several years ago, 4 comics (Alex Koll, Sean Keane, Louis Katz & Chris Garcia) got together to create several short, funny, space-elevator vignettes entitled Elevator To Space. The premise was four guys in a (building) elevator, riding it up to space. They created 39 of these videos and they range from mildly humorous to laugh-out-loud […]
In February of 2012, the Japanese construction company Obayashi announced plans to build a space elevator by the year 2050 (I had previously blogged about this announcement here, here and here). Recently however, there have been a flurry of stories about the Obayashi project and several readers pinged me about them, wondering “what’s new”. As […]
I must admit, I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, the trilogy was EXCELLENT. Exciting, thought-provoking, outstanding science-fiction. On the other hand, the destruction to the Planet Mars following the sabotage of the Martian Space Elevator was gloriously, elaborately, excruciatingly described. Current thinking dictates that a “real” space elevator would not be built […]
An idea that has been occasionally discussed is to use the space elevator to launch radioactive waste to the sun, a permanent waste disposal plan if there ever was one… The magazine Popular Science had an article about this in 2010. It’s been a subject of blog discussions/debates (like this one on PhysicsForum and this […]
This is always a fun session. People can suggest not-fully-thought-out ideas (another way of saying “half-baked”?) to the crowd and use them as an initial ‘sounding board’ to see if it has merit or not. Over the years, we’ve heard some good ideas in this session and, frankly, some really wacky ones, too, but as […]
At this URL, there are two YouTube videos. The first shows a “space elevator” being constructed by a LEGO Mindstorm kit. Slow, clunky, but kind of cool. The second video discusses tall structures built by humans and ends in speculation about building a space elevator. Nice to see that the author/narrator (Vsauce) seems to have […]
Hey, a new Space Elevator website? Oh happy day! Surely with a URL like www.spaceelevatoronline.com, this is a Space Elevator related site? Maybe a blog, like this one, or some other technical site? Perhaps a Q&A site where you can ask questions about a Space Elevator and get answers? Sadly, no… This is the home […]
Over the past 25 hours, the Kansas City Space Pirates have been continuously flying a quadcopter, powered solely by laser beam. At about 4:11am this morning, they passed the LaserMotive unofficial record time of 12 hours and 27 minutes. Once they got the new record time, their goals shifted to double the previous record, or […]
The 2013 Space Elevator Conference wrapped up today with another full schedule. Attendees got one last “fill” of informative and interesting presentations as well as a chance to participate in 2 more workshops. The first activity of the day was an informal polling of the audience as to this question: What would you do with […]
Well, the second day of this year’s Space Elevator Conference has come and gone. As with Day 1, it was filled with very interesting presentations and a useful and thought-provoking workshop. And, as happens at these conferences, people have had a chance to get to know each other now and the personal interaction is increasing […]
An oldie, but still goodie, and, with the Space Elevator Conference coming up in just a few days, this seems apropos… In 2011 and 2012, the Science Channel aired 8 shows in the Prophets of Science Fiction series. Episode 4, originally aired on November 30, 2011, featured Sir Arthur C Clarke (my all-time favorite sci-fi […]
Just a reminder about ISEC’s unified social presence – and that is ISECdotORG! The (new)ISEC Facebook page is ISECdotORG! The ISEC Flickr Photostream is ISECdotORG! The ISEC Twitter Feed is ISECdotORG! And The ISEC YouTube channel is ISECdotORG! The old ISEC Facebook page, International Space Elevator Consortium, has been discontinued. So, Like, Follow and Watch […]
A couple of weekends ago, the second annual European Space Elevator Competition (EUSPEC) was held. ISEC’s own Martin Lades attended this event and has been able to send me some preliminary pictures and information. Winter has arrived early in Europe this year and Martin reports that the first climb was held in the snow! Martin reports: “The […]
ISEC has a new social presence – and that is ISECdotORG! Our Twitter Feed is ISECdotORG. Our Flickr Photostream is ISECdotORG! And our new Facebook page is ISECdotORG! I’ll have more to write about ISEC’s new ‘face’ in the near future, but for now, please follow ISEC on Twitter at ISECdotORG and please “Like” us on Facebook at ISECdotORG!
While reviewing some of the older Space Elevator Conference programs and trying to see if some of the presenters were still active in the SE arena, I ran across this 2007 paper by Major Jason Kent. This paper, entitled “Getting to Space on a Thread – Space Elevator as an Alternative Access to Space” was […]
A new game, Mechanic Panic, has been issued for Apple platforms (iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone) with the Space Elevator as a backdrop and, guess, what, the Space Elevator gets destroyed – how original! From the game description: “A catastrophic explosion has rocked the world’s first Space Elevator. Thankfully you’re on the job! As the fearless […]
Early last year, I posted about an iPad app developed by Mr. Shigeo Saito of the Japan Space Elevator Association (JSEA). Recently I learned that he has ported this application from the iPad to the iPhone – so, if you have an iPhone (and, I think there are a few of you that do), then […]
In the may Space Energy News eNewsletter, it references a January, 2011 article in the Japan newspaper Daily Yomiuri Online. It talks about an experiment testing the feasibility of space-based solar power generation; The technology would start by generating electricity from sunlight in space, convert the power into microwaves and then send it to Earth, […]
In a recent post on the Space Travel Exploration and Tourism website, the author(s) talk about the Space Elevator and bring up several potential problems. The first one is the lack of a material strong enough and of course this is true. As we all know, however, this problem is being worked on by an […]
It’s very nice to see the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) get a mention in a non-English publication. In the online article, “Un ascenseur spatial pour remplacer la navette” (A space elevator to replace the shuttle), we read that, according to ISEC, “…each kilogram into orbit returns to a few tens of dollars, against 20 […]
In 2010, ISEC announced the Yuri Artsutanov & Jerome Pearson prizes, prizes established to foster research into Space Elevator related topics. There were no winners in 2010, though we had two papers that qualified for Honorable Mentions in the Artsutanov Prize. The Pearson Prize, sponsored by the Leeward Space Foundation, is open to all Undergraduate […]
I arrived in Luxembourg yesterday afternoon (local time) – cold and snowy in Europe already. The flight from Chicago to Munich was delayed by several hours due to the snow in Europe. I neglected to pack my power adapters so had to buy new ones here – the walk to the bus stop was on […]
I received the following email from Brian Turner, captain of the Kansas City Space Pirates: Well, At some point you have to give up and move on. The ideal point for this passed some time ago. Perhaps years ago. 😉 The risk/reward ratio is just no longer where it needs to be to make the […]
This is the third in a three part series of Conversations with Yuri Artsutanov. Part I can be found here and Part II can be found here. What Yuri Artsutanov told us about himself Conversations with Yuri Artsutanov by phone, March 2010 Q. When and where were you born? A.I was born on the 5th […]
For those of you who don’t know who Yuri Artsutanov is, he is a Russian engineer and the original co-inventor of the modern idea of a Space Elevator. It was Yuri who first postulated the Space Elevator being a tensile structure rather than a compressive one (like a conventional building or tower). Yuri will be […]
A couple of months ago, Benjamin Jarrell joined ISEC as our new Legal Pillar Lead. He is an attorney practicing in Huntsville, Alabama. In his ‘day job’, he handles a wide variety of matters in his law practice, but his primary interest is in helping government contractors negotiate the federal acquisitions process. He received his […]
On March 21st, the LASER (Lego Bricks Activity and Space Elevator Race) competition was held in Tokyo, Japan. This event, organized and sponsored by the Japan Space Elevator Association (JSEA), is an event that allows school children the opportunity to build and race Climbers, constructed entirely out of Legos. This is the third time this […]
There are several videos on YouTube of toy Space Elevator climbers made out of Legos – here are a few of them: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgXDHiKYARQ[/youtube] . [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cth0Nhjhx8Y[/youtube] . [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__CH_Zu-pws[/youtube] . I believe that in an earlier post I had mentioned it was now actually possible to purchase a Space Elevator Lego Kit in Japan. I wanted to […]
I received this email today from Brian Turner, captain of the Kansas City Space Pirates: This is one of those newsletters where I mostly have bad news. It looks like the competition date of May 10th is coming unstuck. We don’t have a new date at all right now which is just as well because […]
A few weeks ago, Brian Turner (captain of the Kansas City Space Pirates – KCSP) sent out this email to his mailing list. This email, detailing “What Went Right”, is a follow-up to his “What Went Wrong” email I posted here. In my last email I talked about what went wrong. In this one I […]
At the 2008 Space Elevator Conference, a large contingent from the then newly-formed Japan Space Elevator Association (JSEA) showed up. They blew us away with how much they had accomplished in so little time and wowed us with videos, TV-show recordings and Anime from Japan – all showing how well-accepted the idea of a Space […]
Brian Turner, captain of the Kansas City Space Pirates, sent out this email to his supporters and ‘inner circle’: As you may have heard by now we were unsuccessful in our attempt to win prize money in the NASA power beaming challenge. LaserMotive was alone in the 2 meters per second $900,000 prize level. USST […]
So, if you have climbers of different weights carrying different payloads and having different times to complete the run, how do you come up with a fair way to judge who the winner is? The way Spaceward has done this is to give preference to climber speed and to payload ratio (the amount of payload vs. […]
Today history was made. The Team LaserMotive climber traveled the raceway (approximately 900 meters) in 4 minutes, 2 seconds, about 3.72 meters/second. This run more than doubles the previous best beam-powered climb (performed by USST in the 2007 competition) of 1.8 meters/second. While this run does not qualify for the 5 meters/second prize, it easily […]
So, one of the criteria for winning, assuming that a Climber can make the ascent in the required minimum time, is how much payload the climber carries – it figures into the prize-winning calculation. Given that we have three teams here, and that the rules for payload are very lax (basically, nothing that has or […]
All in all, another pretty good day for NSS and the Space Elevator Games… As I mentioned in the previous post, the first goal of this second day of testing was to rerun the “Optics melt test”. TRUMPF personnel performed trouble-shooting on their system and concluded that one of the laser feed heads (unfortunately, the […]