This past year has been a wonderful one for me and my family (the stock market notwithstanding) and I hope it has been for you too. I hope your 2009 is even better.
Happy New Year everyone!
(This New Year picture was kindly sent to me by Karen Ghazaryan – thanks Karen! Click on it for a larger version)
Markus Klettner, Executive Director of EuroSpaceward, has kindly sent me several documents resulting from or relating to the recent EuroSpaceward Conference.
This first document is an interview of Markus by BBC New Journalist Jason Palmer. Markus hastens to add that the views he expresses in this interview are his own and are not necessarily representative of EuroSpaceward. This document is in pdf format.
The next document is the Conference presentation by Professor Nicola Pugno entitled “The role of defects in the design of Space Elevator cable” and is in Microsoft Powerpoint format.
Finally, Markus has kindly provided us with 8 other documents/presentations authored or co-authored by the same Professor Pugno relating to his studies of defects in carbon nanotubes. All of these documents are in pdf format.
So, if you need some reading material – here it is!
These documents are particularly relevant as I have recently presented a series of posts (here, here and here) on Ben Shelef’s (CEO of Spaceward) view of how strong a carbon nanotube ribbon has to be to make a useful Space Elevator. From my own reading of Prof. Pugno’s papers, it appears that there are some differences of opinion (or at least differences in the way things are stated) between Prof. Pugno and Ben on this issue. Hopefully in the not-too-distant future, ISEC can explore these differences in more detail.
OK, OK, OK already!!!
Michael Laine (of LiftPort fame) has been pestering me for the past few weeks to ‘get with it’ and start using some of the web tools out there to post all of the Space Elevator photos I’ve taken over the past 2+ years. So, I’ve set up a Flickr account (‘Space Elevator Blogger’) and am beginning to post the many photos I’ve taken. I’m starting with the 2007 Space Elevator Games. Once those are done, I’ll move onto the 2006 Space Elevator Games and, hopefully, I’ll finish that before the 2009 Space Elevator Games begin 🙂
Michael has also convinced me to start a Twitter account. And, if that’s not enough, he’s now trying to convince me to take a look at del.icio.us.
I’m such a dinosaur, truly I am. I’m pretty computer-savvy, having spent my entire professional career in the computer software business, but I’m old-school – my language of choice was COBOL. And, for kicks, I’d like to enter machine instructions via the toggle switches on an IBM 360. Mr. Laine, however, is trying to upgrade me to Web 2.0 stuff. Oh, the humanity…
OK Michael, if my head explodes, it’s all your fault…
This morning, the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) sent out it’s first press release, basically saying “Hey world – we’re here!”. The real fun is going to start over the next several weeks. We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to set up our plans for 2009. I don’t want to prematurely mention anything specific now – but rest assured that we will be doing concrete work to further efforts in getting a Space Elevator built and we’re going to have fun along the way. Stay tuned!
I encourage all of you to visit the ISEC web site (http://www.isec.info) to sign up for our newsletter.
Here is the press release:
Leading Players in the Space Elevator Movement Join Together to Form New International Consortium
New Independent Group to Foster Global Research, Develop International Standards and Serve as a Worldwide Information Exchange on the Space Elevator
Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. (December 22, 2008) – A coalition of leaders in the Space Elevator movement today announced the formation of The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC), a new independent group designed to promote standards and foster research relating to the construction of an Elevator to Space at the global level.
Founding members of ISEC include the Spaceward Foundation, the Space Elevator Reference, the Space Elevator Blog, EuroSpaceward and the Japan Space Elevator Association. Heading the new organization is Ted Semon of the Space Elevator Blog, who will serve as president.
According to the Consortium, the goal of ISEC is to promote the development, construction and operation of the Space Elevator as a revolutionary and efficient way to space for all humanity. The group will accomplish this through these key areas:
– Development of a unified plan and roadmap for the Space Elevator and the coordinated assignment of specific research topics
– Funding of research on technologies relevant to the Space Elevator
– Development of the international legal framework necessary for the operation of the Space Elevator
– Global public outreach and central information exchange on Space Elevator activities
“The Space Elevator is a project whose time has come,” said Semon. “With the challenges facing today’s global economy, it is clear that new industries and new ideas are needed to help our planet in the 21st Century. The Space Elevator can be a key positive contributor, from providing inexpensive nanotechnology material science breakthroughs that will make your car stronger and lighter, to the creation of new industries that offer opportunities for investment and job creation. The International Space Elevator Consortium devoted to its development can make this happen.”
ISEC will be unveiling additional plans and details in the upcoming weeks, including a board of directors, technical journals, university and industry relationships, research opportunities and scholarships. Memberships will be available on the individual, corporate, academic and governmental levels.
Headquartered in the greater Los Angeles area, center of the aerospace industry, the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) is a non-profit organization devoted to the research and construction of an Elevator to Space. For more information please visit www.isec.info.
For more information please contact:
Ted Semon
ISEC
1-630-240-4797
ted [at] spaceelevatorblog.com
Belinda Young
BYPR
1-206-932-3145
byoung [at] bypr.com
Here’s a pilot for a new web series, Tranquility Dome. There is a Space Elevator and already it’s been destroyed!!
I hope this turns into a real series as something about this grabbed me – it’s actually well done IMHO. But they have to do something about the teeth…
(Image of the “NorthPac Elevator” is a screen capture from the video – click on it for a larger version)
Yesterday, December 16th, would have been Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s 91st birthday. Jerome Pearson kindly sent me this picture of Sir Arthur and Yuri Artsutanov taken during Sir Arthur’s visit to Russia in 1980.
(Click on the picture for a larger version)
We’ll take a short break from posting about tethers and tether strength to let everyone know the latest news from the KC Space Pirates;
We still are waiting for a venue and date for the competition. It is currently slated for Feb-March 2009 and I know that Spaceward and others are working hard to get it nailed down.
A film crew was in town this weekend to get an overview of the space elevator and catch some of our testing. This is for a show called “Space Pioneers” that is supposed to air around June 2009 on the Science Channel. The presenter was Dr. Basil Singer from “Project Earth” http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/project-earth/task-force/task-force.html. It was nice chatting with Basil about our system without the veil of secrecy that we usually have. If the competition gets delayed past June then we might be in trouble.
Just to make it more interesting I accidentally crashed the climber while demonstrating for the team members on the day before the video shoot. It fell about 15 ft to our concrete driveway and damaged the motor among other things. We repaired the motor and bench tested it. When someone asked me if I wanted to do a climb test with it, I answered no because I did not want to crash it again that late in the day. We can add this to the long line of bad calls that I have made as captain. The next day, with the cameras rolling and a dozen or so crew members watching, the motor just grunted pathetically instead of climbing for the sky. At this point we only have various speeds and sizes of motors and not any direct spares. But in about 20 min we were able to swap out most of the drive system and get it running pretty good. We will see if they are merciful in the editing.
The exercise let us capture a lot of performance data that will help us tune the climber for the competition. Other parts of our system are progressing well enough. We have only one critical issue that is looking to be expensive to fix. It also will take time so we can’t let up now.
Brian Turner
Captain
KC Space Pirates
Thanks for the update Brian. It’s true that Spaceward is working very hard to nail down the venue and time. It IS getting closer to being finalized and we’re hoping for March (I think you can forget about February). I know it’s been a real PITA (for everyone), but there has been progress…
And yes, everyone, I haven’t been posting much lately – and I’m sorry for that. I do have several posts nearly ready to go, so the output should increase over the next several days…
On December 14th, 1972, at 5:55pm Eastern Standard Time, Challenger lifted off the moon to rendezvous with the craft that would take mankind’s last moon walkers home.
Yes, it’s been 36 years since any human has been to the moon (or gone anywhere outside of LEO, for that matter). Apollo 17 marked the apogee of our manned space exploration efforts and we just have to hope that it won’t mark the end of them. Yes, yes, I know about NASA’s plans to return to the moon and to travel to Mars, but one just has to hope that the intense political lobbying and infighting going on about and within NASA won’t (again) cripple such efforts…
And, lets just say that a NASA web site showing ‘full resolution photos’ of the new moon visit is just going to give the conspiracy theorists new fodder in their claim that the original moon landings were hoaxes 🙂
(Apollo 17 logo from here – click on it for a larger version)
In ‘Part 2’ of this series on Space Elevator tether strength, I referred to Ben Shelef’s document (The Space Elevator Feasibility Equation) on how strong a Space Elevator tether really has to be and explained how stronger power systems can increase the amount of material a Space Elevator can carry at any one time.
Are these stronger power systems a luxury? Can we start out with a weaker power system and then, at some point in the future, increase its power? After all, isn’t everything a Space Elevator is going to carry to space useful payload – i.e., satellites, tourists, manufacturing plants/capabilities, etc.? Wouldn’t a weaker power system mean that we carry just less useful stuff into space?
The answer to that is a resounding “No”. In addition to being able to support its own weight, there are other ‘housekeeping’ requirements which a Space Elevator tether HAS to satisfy before it can start hauling useful payload.
The Space Elevator tether is going to degrade over time. Micro-meteorites, atomic oxygen, radiation, physical wear and tear from Climber runs, etc., are all going to cause damage to the tether. This means that the tether material is going to have to be periodically replaced. How quickly this has to happen is one of the key, unanswered questions which must be addressed before a Space Elevator is built, but obviously the material has to be replaced faster than it wears out. So, in addition to holding its own weight, the first housekeeping requirement is that a space elevator must be able to replace itself faster than it wears out.
In addition, to being able to periodically replace itself, the space elevator must also be able to increase its carrying capacity. When the initial space elevator is launched and deployed, it will not be strong enough to carry much payload; launching a fully-fledged space elevator capable of supporting, say, a 20 ton climber, would be prohibitively heavy and prohibitively expensive. So the current plan is to launch a ‘seed ribbon’ and, once that is in place, to send up climbers on that seed ribbon with additional material which is spliced to the tether. As more climbers add more material, the more payload the space elevator can carry. Incidentally, this highlights the chief advantage of a Space Elevator over other methods of carrying payload to/from space, its scalability. There really is no practical limit on how big a Space Elevator can be. You can make a Space Elevator which will carry hundreds, even thousands of tons of cargo into space every day; all you have to do is just keep adding tether material to the space elevator ribbon. Of course there’s a price to pay for that; payload dedicated to additional tether material is payload capacity which cannot be used for other things. You do not have to continually increase the capability of the Space Elevator, of course, you can stop when it can handle, say, a one hundred ton climber, but it will take many years for this to happen. The upshot of this is that this second housekeeping requirement says that a space elevator must also be able to carry a ‘doubling capacity’ in addition to carrying normal payload.
Finally, prudence dictates that a spare seed ribbon should be carried by the space elevator up to and stored at GEO (or perhaps beyond, to act as counterweight material) to facilitate making a new space elevator in the case of a ribbon break (or other catastrophic failure). Yes, one could hope that there would be rocket capability to launch another seed ribbon if necessary, but it would be foolish to plan on it. So, this third housekeeping requirement says that the Space Elevator must also be able to carry this spare seed ribbon into space.
So, we have three housekeeping functions that a space elevator MUST be able to perform before it can carry useful payload into space; replacement material to handle tether degradation, additional material to increase the tether’s carrying capacity and a spare seed ribbon.
If the Space Elevator cannot, at a minimum, carry all of this material within the required time frame, then there is no point in even trying to build one – it HAS to be able to do this to succeed. As I discussed in the previous post, the stronger your power system is, the faster, in general, the climbers will be able to ascend the ribbon. And they have to be able to ascend fast enough to allow the Space Elevator to handle BOTH the housekeeping requirements and hauling useful payload into space.
In his paper The Space Elevator Feasibility Condition, Spaceward CEO Ben Shelef converts these housekeeping requirements into mathematical variables which he then matches against possible tether strength scenarios and possible power system scenarios.
There is one other Space Elevator requirement which must be discussed and that is its safety margin. How ‘safe’ does a Space Elevator have to be? Nothing is 100% safe, everything can fail under certain conditions. So how safe do we want a Space Elevator to be?
In my next post, I’ll discuss this in more detail.
(Picture of competition tether from 2006 Space Elevator Games – click on it for a larger version)
I’m interrupting my posts on tether strength as I, today, received this email from Markus Klettner of EuroSpaceward;
Dear Ted
Find enclosed the Book of Abstracts (2 parts) on our Luxembourg conference on Dec 6-7 FYI.
The gathering has been highly constructive. Excellent presentation were given, notably by Prof. Vesselin Shanov UC (unexpected stop of growth of pure nanotube arrays at approx 2 cm length that is inexplicable at the moment…hopes are there that it may be overcome), Prof. Nicola Pugno (thermodynamical limits for a mega cable, the impacts of holes and cracks and 3 proposed approaches to eventually push the limits), Brad
on manned space elevator, latest achievements on fibre strength and production at CRRP Bordeaux and Cambridge held by Prof. Cécile Zakri resp. Marcelo Motta. Highlights were also the lectures of Akira on Japanese activities and of Prof. Cockell on saving our world by seeking others!Presentations will be soon online on EuroSpaceward’s member website and a detailed summary will be posted in the news part.
Best regards
Markus
The two (pdf) abstracts are available here and here.
Thank you Markus!
In my previous post, I referred to Spaceward CEO Ben Shelef’s document (The Space Elevator Feasibility Equation) as a basis for discussing how strong a Space Elevator tether really has to be and I wrote this; “The answer to this question relates to how strong the climber power system is. The stronger the power system is, the weaker the tether can be (and vice-versa).”
Why is this so? Well, let’s look at an example.
Say you have a tether which is rated at 30 tons. What this means is that you can have up to 30 tons of Climber/Payload weight on the tether at any one time. Does this mean that you can only have one 30-ton Climber (or three 10-ton Climbers or six 5-ton Climbers) on the tether at one time?
The answer is no – you can have more than 30 tons of mass on the Climber at one time and the reason for this is the Climber, as it ascends, weighs less and less (though its mass, of course, never changes). This is due to the force of gravity weakening as you get farther and farther away from earth. So, a Climber which weighs 30 tons at ground zero will only weigh only half as much (15 tons) when it gets to 2,624 kilometers in height (where the force of gravity is one-half that at ground level). When the Climber ascends to 6,400 kilometers, the Climber will weigh only one quarter as much (7.5 tons) and so on. So this means that when a 30 ton Climber ascends to 6,400 kilometers (and weighs only 7.5 tons), you can then launch another Climber weighing 22.5 tons. When that Climber gets to 6,400 kilometers (and the first one launched is now at 12,800 kilometers), the total Climber weight on the tether is now 10.8 tons (1/4 of 30 tons plus 1/9 of 30 tons) which means you can launch another 19.2 ton Climber (note that the Climbers will weigh even less than I’ve indicated as they ascend due to centrifugal force, but that factor doesn’t become significant until you get close to GEO and so I’ve ignored it here).
As you can see, one can play with these numbers in several different ways to get different launch schedules, but the bottom line is this; you can launch any number of Climbers you want to on this 30-ton rated tether as long as the total weight of these Climbers (as opposed to the total mass of these Climbers) does not exceed 30 tons.
From this, it should be pretty clear that it is advantageous to have the Climbers ascend as rapidly as possible. The higher they ascend and the quicker they do so, the sooner you can launch another significant Climber. And this brings us back to the statement; “The stronger the power system is, the weaker the tether can be”.
The stronger your power system is (with all other things being equal), the faster your climbers can ascend (up to a limit, of course). So, if your goal is to get 20 tons to GEO every day, you need, say, a 30 ton rated tether with a power system strong enough to propel a 20 ton Climber at least 2,624 kilometers per day, or, you can have, say, a 60 ton rated tether with a weaker power system just able to propel a 20 ton Climber at least 1,312 kilometers per day. Both tethers will do the job, but it’s certainly going to be easier (and faster) to build a 30-ton rated tether than a 60-ton rated one. And what if a 60-ton rated tether is just not possible?
“The stronger the power system is, the weaker the tether can be”.
Not only would we LIKE to lift the maximum amount possible on any specific tether, it is also going to be NECESSARY to lift the maximum amount possible on any specific tether. This is because there are ‘housekeeping chores’ which will consume a very significant fraction of a Space Elevator’s capabilities, housekeeping chores which, if not done, will mean a Space Elevator will simply not be viable. I will talk about these housekeeping chores in my next post.
(Picture of Stone-Wales defect from here – click on it for a slightly larger version)
How strong does a tether really have to be in order to make a working, useful Space Elevator? This is a question that Ben Shelef, CEO of the Spaceward Foundation, has been exploring in some detail.
The answer to this question relates to how strong the climber power system is. The stronger the power system is, the weaker the tether can be (and vice-versa). There is no absolute minimum number, but there is an equation which Ben has created, The Space Elevator Feasibility Condition, which answers this question.
According to Ben’s calculations, for example, a tether which has a tensile strength of 30 GPa-cc/g would be strong enough to create a useful Space Elevator provided the Climber power system can generate at least 1.5 kWatt/kg. If the tensile strength of the tether is only 25 GPa-cc/g, the power system needs to generate at least 3.5 kWatt/kg.
How does climber power relate to tether strength? Ben documents all of this in a new paper; The Space Elevator Feasibility Condition, available (in html and pdf formats) in the Library section of the Spaceward website.
Over the next few days, I’m going to be looking at and writing about this paper in more detail.
This paper is very important for all of us in the Space Elevator community to read and understand. We need to be able to pose realistic scenarios and give justifiable answers to questions when they are presented to us. The Space Elevator Feasibility Condition will help us do that.
(Picture of spontaneous formation of Stone-Wales Defect in a nanotube under tension from the Spaceward website – click on it for a slightly larger version)
Oh my God, the relatives are in town and the holidays ARE HERE!!!
Sorry for the lack of posts this week, but there’s just been no time. Not much to announce yet either, but that is going to change very soon (with ISEC and, hopefully, the Space Elevator Games too).
I’ll be back posting on Friday Monday. In the meantime, enjoy the time you spend together with your family over this holiday and don’t eat too much…
And, the following is a special Thanksgiving treat for all you NPR fans…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOw1a4YZs58[/youtube]
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(Cartoon from here – click on it for a larger version)
On the Japan Space Elevator Association (JSEA) website, they’ve posted photos from the recently held conference. In this post, I’m showing Akira Tsuchida, one of the conference organizers and head of the E-T-C Climber / Power-Beaming team, giving the presentation for the Spaceward organization.
Akira sent me these brief notes on the conference:
“Over 200 people in the audience and 18 speakers. Over 100 items for usage of SE including cute illustration. 10 high (and junior high) schools entered the Space Elevator Lego model race. The Ambassador of Bahrain also joined.
We held the CNT filament seminar on Nov. 14 (Fri) and 20 industries; Sumitomo, Toray, Toyobo, Toyota, etc joined. They were surprised that Cambridge and MIT’s teams were doing such a great job.”
Click on the picture for a larger version or, better yet, visit the JSEA website to see all of the photos that were taken.
And, I’ve heard from Stephen Steiner, the Space Elevator Blog ‘guest correspondant’ who promises me that he will have an additional report or two from the conference in the very near future.
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I finally have my copy of the new Marvel release, Iron Man – The End. It’s been one busy week, so I didn’t have a chance to read it until tonight.
The issue is about 98% Iron Man and 2% Space Elevator, but hey, 2% of a Marvel Iron Man issue is nothing to sneeze at. I was initially going to do a review of the storyline, but decided against it because a) I am not competent to do so as I really know nothing about the comic book genre and b) I thought it would be more interesting to tease out the 2% Space Elevator bits to see how they stack up against the ‘currently accepted model’.
To begin with, the earthport of the Stark Space Elevator (Tony Stark = aka Iron Man) is based on a tiny island. This does not fit the currently proposed model, which calls for an an ocean-based, movable platform. The Edwards-Westling book gives eight reasons why we would want to have a movable base;
Some difficulties of a ocean-based earth-port vs. a land-based earth-port are also mentioned in this book;
Personally, I’ve never liked the idea of an ocean-going earth-port – the idea has always seemed a bit dodgy to me. When I first read The Space Elevator, everything proposed made sense EXCEPT for the earth-port. Having to move the earth-port itself to induce a wave in the tether in order to make it miss a bit of debris (or a satellite) is really inefficient. Why not have lasers zap the 99.99% of the debris that no one cares about and have thrusters mounted on the ribbon every 1,000 Km or so and let them move the ribbon as necessary for the rare bit (live satellite or whatever) which cannot be zapped? Just find the thruster that’s closest and use it. And, with the portion of the tether which is in the atmosphere now probably going to be a cable rather than a ribbon, it will be minimally affected by the wind.
So, my heart is with Stark on this one, though the ‘prevailing wisdom’ says otherwise…
The next item mentioned is the tether itself. To quote from the relevant frame; “Basically a giant nanotube ‘grown’ from a geostationary Space Station.” Travel on this tether will be by (again quoting); “…magnetically levitated shuttles (which) will carry passengers and cargo at less than two percent of current costs making the stars accessible to the common man.” Hmmmm.
Again, the current model says that the baseline tether will be shipped to GEO, assembled, and then simultaneously deployed downwards (towards earth) and upwards (away from earth), this to keep it stable. If the tether is only ‘grown downwards’, as is shown in the comic book, pretty soon (very soon, in fact), gravity will have its say and will pull everything down. Yes, you can have a counterweight at GEO (with nothing above it) to hold the tether in place, but it would have to be ginormous, far bigger than the space station shown in the comic. Also, later on in the issue, there is a picture of the tether in the clouds, looking like it’s being ‘grown downwards’, but it’s not a tether at all, but rather a very large structure. This is reminiscent of the ‘Clarke model’ from his Fountains of Paradise novel.
So, IMHO, I don’t think the tether scenario in the comic would work at all…
The next Space Elevator item was, well, there was no ‘next item’ – that was it. Like I said, 98% Iron Man, 2% Space Elevator.
If you want to find out if Tony Stark succeeds in building his Space Elevator, you’ll just have to go out and buy the issue 🙂
When this issue was first announced, I emailed one of the storyline artists, Bob Layton, and asked if he would be willing to answer a few questions for us. He graciously consented and below, is our short interview with Bob.
[Space Elevator Blog – SEB] Have you been following the evolution in thought regarding the development of a Space Elevator? Do you consider it to be a realistic possibility or just a crazy idea?
[Bob Layton – BL] I believe that it’s a totally realistic concept and I hope that we eventually apply our energies as a society to make this science into a reality.[SEB]Why did you pick a Space Elevator as Tony Stark’s “Ultimate Project”? Were you at all influenced by author Arthur C. Clarke and his fictional engineer (Vannevar Morgan) building a Space Elevator as his ‘ultimate project’ or was there another inspiration behind this?
[BL]When David Michelinie and I were originally concocting the plot to Iron Man: The End back in 1999, I had just finished reading Arthur C. Clarke’s ‘Songs of Distant Earth’. The scientific theory around the Space Elevator in that story served as an inspiration.[SEB]If it’s not revealing a plot line you’d rather keep secret for now, does Tony Stark use the ‘Edwards model’ for building a Space Elevator (a carbon nanotube ribbon as the climber cable, anchored in the ocean at the earth-end) or the ‘Clarke model’ (a more solid structure anchored on land) or some other model?
[BL] We use a little bit of the “Edwards Model” and the “Clarke Model” in IRON MAN:The End.[SEB] Reading your Bio on your website (http://www.boblayton.com <http://www.boblayton.com/>), it’s obvious that, to date, you have had a long and successful career in the comic book industry as well as in film and television. During your career, have you used the concept of a Space Elevator in any other project? If so, could you tell us a little bit about those projects?
[BL] No. But I have a proposed TV series in the works entitled “Jett’s Way” that revolves around the first commercial Space Agency. In the premise, the lead character is trying to get permits to construct the space elevator and encounters political and corporate opposition from every imaginable source.[SEB] There is support building for a Space Elevator in both Europe and Japan and I think they would be very interested in this issue. Are Marvel Comics available in other languages?
[BL] Yes.[SEB] Finally, if you had a chance to ride on a real Space Elevator, would you do it?
[BL ] In a HEARTBEAT!! YOU BET!!
Thank you Bob! And, please keep us updated on the “Jett’s Way” project you mentioned. It sounds fascinating.
Go out and buy this issue, dear readers. More than most comic books, I think this could become a ‘Collector’s Item’.
(Cover Text/Graphic and frame from this issue)
While browsing through Amazon today, I came upon a new book (not yet released), Space Elevators and Space Tethers. I am not familiar with the author, Michel Van Pelt, but I have emailed him to see if I can get any additional information I can give to my readers before the expected release date (March, 2009) of this book.
From the book’s Amazon page:
“This detailed account of the possibilities of tethers in space, from very practical applications to (near) science fiction, gives an overview of the past, present and future of space tether development and presents the various concepts, ranging from those feasible in the near future to extremely innovative and challenging ideas. It shows how space tethers have already been used to stabilize spacecraft using tidal forces and to generate artificial gravity using a spinning system with a spacecraft connected to a counterweight via a cable. Tethers can also generate electricity by dragging spacecraft through the Earth’s magnetosphere, as was attempted with partial success during two Space Shuttle missions. Using electrodynamic forces, conductive tethers can also accelerate or brake a spacecraft.
Probably the most exciting tether concept is the space elevator, consisting of an incredibly strong long cable that stretches from the Earth’s surface into space. Solar powered “climber” machines, which are already under development, could use such a cable to haul cargo into orbit. The author also describes how space tethers can change the orbit of satellites, by effectively moving their center of gravity through the deployment of long cables. Tethers rotating at high speed can be used to accelerate or slow down spacecraft that briefly latch to them. In principle, such “momentum exchange” tethers can be used to fly a space probe from low Earth orbit all the way into orbit around Mars, without the need for rocket propulsion. A tether can also provide scientific information on the magnetosphere of the planet it’s orbiting.
Michel van Pelt explains the principle of space tethers: what they are and how they can be used in space. He introduces non-technical space enthusiasts to the various possibilities of space tethers, the technological challenges, the potential benefits and their feasibility. He illustrates how, because of their inherent simplicity, space tethers have the potential to make space travel much cheaper, while ongoing advances in tether material technology may make even seemingly far-fetched ideas a reality in the not too distant future.”
It sounds very interesting and I look forward to hearing from Mr. Van Pelt and to the book’s release. If I receive any additional pre-release information, I’ll be sure and let you all know.
(Picture of NASA’s TSS-1 tether mission from here – click on it for a larger version)
Two new space elevator-related videos have made their way to YouTube.
The first is excerpts of an interview with the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke. It’s undated, but in the opening seconds, Sir Clarke states that he wrote the “Fountains of Paradise 20 years ago…”. That book was written in 1979, so this interview was recorded in 1999 (or thereabouts). Most of it is about the Space Elevator, but some other subjects (like Cold Fusion) are mentioned. I enjoyed the interview, but, he does mention something about Mars “…being infested with life…” due to “…Mars Orbiter photographs showing huge areas of vegetation…”. Really? A quick Google search discussed that this ‘vegetation’ is really natural formations or the results of carbon dioxide geysers or whatever. I like Sir Clarke’s explanation better – I just wish it were true.
If anyone knows where I might get a copy of the LP record Sir Clarke shows in the begining of the interview, I’d dearly love to know about it.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZSrAoMzRm8[/youtube]
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And this other video is a shameless ripoff of existing Space Elevator images and photos from the Space Elevator Games, intermixed with multiple photos of Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Medvedev, the Kremlin, Russian Flag images, etc., etc., etc. all set to some sort of strange ‘Martial-techno’ music. It’s all very bizarre…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrazXbI4b2Y[/youtube]
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I didn’t say it was good, only that it was there 🙂
Update – 20NOV08 – Brian Turner, captain of the Kansas City Space Pirates Power-Beaming / Climber team, found a link to a NY Times interview (in 1999) that may have been the source of the Sir Clarke video shown earlier in this post – thanks Brian!)
Some updates on stories/posts recently seen on this blog…
First of all, Spaceward wants to give a big shout-out to Mari Kimura for doing all of the English->Japanese translation for the Spaceward website (which I blogged about yesterday). Thanks Mari – they look great!
A few days ago I blogged about the report from the Australian Senate Standing Committee on Economics saying that the Aussies should consider building a Space Elevator off their NW coast. This report has been picked up by some more of the 
Australian press and Philip Ragan (co-author of Leaving the Planet by Space Elevator and someone who I suggested might be able to put in a favorable word about this project to the Australian government) was quoted. News.com.au weighs in with their opinion here while psfk discusses it here. And Tribune of the Plebs directly links to my blog post while pointing out that my attempt at using Aussie slang might not have been all that accurate… Hey, I’m just a poor Seppo – take pity on me please… 🙂 His suggestion of a joint Japanese/Australian Space Elevator has a lot going for it; two technologically advanced and rich countries, a growing Japanese space program and close access to one of the best sites proposed to site a Space Elevator earthport. Oy Oy Oy!!!
I also recently blogged about Michael Laine’s report on the time he recently spent at the International Space University. Michael has now posted the “complete and unabridged” version of the story on the LiftPort blog. As an aside, it’s just nice to see this blog being used again…
And my local comic book store PROMISED me that tomorrow they would have the Iron Man – The End issue I had backordered. I spoke with Michael Laine a few days ago and he had great fun taunting me by saying “how good” the issue was and “how sorry” he was that I was unable to read it yet and, no, he “wasn’t going to tell me” what happened because he didn’t want to spoil it for me, but yes, “it was all about building a Space Elevator”, etc., etc., etc. Arrrggghhh! In the meantime, here’s a review of the issue by someone who didn’t exactly find it enthralling… I’ll have to wait and see, of course, but I think I’ll go with Michael’s take on this one.
And finally, in response to a couple of emails I’ve received, no, I don’t have any further news on the Japan Space Elevator Conference. I promise I’ll post any updates as soon as I receive them.
(Iron man drawing from here, Samurai Kangaroo picture from here. Click on either for a larger version.)
If you wander over to the Spaceward website, you’ll see that its proud owner, Ben Shelef, has been very, very busy…
Spaceward, for those of you who don’t know, is the organization which partners with NASA to host the Space Elevator Games. While NASA provides the $4 Million in prize money, Spaceward is the organization that has to do all the work. They have to find a venue (different and more difficult 
each year because of the increasingly complexity of the competition), recruit and support the teams, write the rules, actually put on the event, judge the results, publicize what they’re doing, etc., etc., etc…. The amount of publicity this event garners though is huge and worldwide and there can be little doubt that the Spaceward Space Elevator Games are one of the premier events in the Space Elevator world.
Anyway, back to their website. To help support Japan’s first Space Elevator conference, Spaceward has had much of its web content translated into Japanese, this to help the Japanese public in their understanding of this revolutionary technology. If you visit their website, note the tiny American and 
Japanese flags at the top-left and the arrow in between. Pointing to that graphic and then clicking on the flag that pops up will send you to the ‘other language’ website. Ben hasn’t had everything translated into Japanese yet, but much of it is. This should help ‘spread the word’ in the land of the rising sun…
A visit to this website is highly recommended, for both English and Japanese speakers. It is one of the very places on the web where you can trust what you read about the Space Elevator.
Next week, I’ll highlight some of the other updates Ben has made to the Spaceward website.
(Click on the concept picture of the Space Elevator for a larger version or, better yet, visit the Spaceward website to see all of its content)
“LiftPort”, “Michael Laine” and the “Space Elevator” are words and phrases that are often used together. As the driving force behind LiftPort, Michael poured his heart and soul (not to mention his wallet) into that company’s effort to build a Space Elevator. Though it did not succeed, no one who is aware of what went on at LiftPort can question his committment or dedication to the cause…
After LiftPort, Michael traveled to Europe and spent many months there, exploring business opportunities and seeing the sights (and posting a ton of photos on Flickr). He’s back in the US now and, among other projects he’s working on, he has a 15-part series he is writing for the Discovery Channel.
Part 1 is posted now and it’s a fascinating look into what happens at the International Space University (ISU). I must confess that attending these sessions is on my ‘bucket list’ and I hope I get a chance to do that in the not too distant future.
And knowing Michael, I’m sure we’re going to be hearing much more from him and about him in the near future…
Carbon Nanotube Filaments Capture Interest of Japanese Industries
Today I participated in the closed-session Carbon Nanotube Filament Seminar intended to promote interest and awareness of carbon nanotubes as a strength material among Japanese industry. The seminar took place at Nihon University in Tokyo in a large classroom reminiscent of a hall we often take our final exams in at MIT. The seminar featured simultaneous translation of Japanese to English and vice versa by translators in a soundbooth in the back of the room through pocket multichannel radio receivers. I was extremely impressed at how fluid and apparently accurate the translations were, which made for seamless conversation between presenters and audience members regardless of communication protocol.
All in all there were about 40 people present at the seminar, with representatives from various companies including Suzuki, Toray (carbon fiber manufacturer), and Toyobo (Zylon manufactuer) to name a few. I will note that although the commercial nanotube industry is already heavily based in Japan, the companies producing nanotubes here primarily focus on applications for electronics and composites, as opposed to nanotubes for fibers or strength applications.
The first speaker was Mr. Tsuyoshi Hashimoto from Meijo Nanocarbon here in Japan. Meijo is a producer of single-wall carbon nanotubes produced through the arc-discharge technique. This technique does not produce long CNTs but instead short, electronics-grade CNTs. Tsuyoshi presented a number of products his company makes, including highly solubilized CNTs in various solutions, petri dishes lined with SWNTs which supposedly enhance microorganism growth, and a bottle of glassy black strips composed of SWNTs which is apparently the SWNTs as-produced. Tsuyoshi explained their company’s target markets, which are primarily focused on use of SWNTs as transparent conductive layers for electronics and photovoltaics and SWNTs as fillers for composites with other materials (i.e., plastics and metals).
Our second speaker was Dr. Bryan Laubscher who spoke at a high-level about nanotubes as they pertain to the space elevator. Bryan highlighted the various technological transitions in society which have coincided with the mastery of stronger materials throughout history–the mastery of stone and the populating of every continent except Antarctica, the mastery of bronze and the establishment of city-states, the mastery of iron and the emergence of empires and seafaring civilization, the mastery of steel and the industrial revolution, the discovery of polymers and the space age, and now what he predicted will be an era of CNTs and the space elevator. Some conversation followed the presentation pointing out the discovery of CNTs was not in fact by Iijima in 1991, who really was responsible for “rediscovering” carbon nanotubes and showing their scientific and technological potential, but rather by Endo in 1975 and perhaps as early as 1955 by a Soviet researcher and shortly thereafter in the late 1950’s by McCartney in the United States. Bryan also mentioned that he is leading an effort that hopes to compete in the strong tether competition which we look forward to competing against!
Dr. Marcello Motta from Cambridge University then presented work from Prof. Alan Windle’s group on the production of continuous CNT fibers. The talk was absolutely excellent. Marcello has been one of the essential players in the development of the Cambridge yarns and provided some very interesting insight into their system, which is a two-story tall vertical furnace. Their materials are almost exclusively made of fat double-walled carbon nanotubes which collapse into flattened structures (as opposed to staying rigidly cylindrical), giving them much better surface area for contacting other nanotubes. Their fibers (fibres) are generally in the range of 2.5 GPa reliably, and over mm-lengths somewhere in the range of 10 GPa–this represents the breaking strength of primary fibers which make up the yarn, whereas the lower number represents the slipping strength of the primary fibers. Marcello also mentioned that Windle’s spin-off company Q-Flo has recently received funding and as a result some of the scale-up efforts could not be discussed in great detail, however the technology is finally transitioning out of the laboratory. Marcello also showed a picture of a bicycle wheel-based apparatus with a circumference of 2 m designed for making 2-m continuous yarns and stated he intends on attending the 2008 strong tether competition (being held in Florida from Feb-Mar 2009)! Although Marcello said their materials are not strong enough to win, they wanted to get the experience of going through the competition so that they can work towards winning! Very exciting that we will have some CNT competition!
I then realized I forgot all of my nanotube samples back at the hotel (I blame jet lag) and Chie Saito of Earth Track Corporation was kind enough to help me navigate the Japan Rail system to go back and get them. While we were gone everyone else enjoyed bento boxes and green tea. Akira Tsuchida, the conference organizer, then gave Ben Shelef’s talk about the Tether Strength Competition Centennial Challenge, which I caught the very end of. Akira did a very good job of representing the Spaceward Foundation and the audience was intrigued.
After Akira’s talk I gave mine about the status of tether development at Nanocomp and MIT. The first half of the talk was pretty similar to what I gave by telepresentation at the Seattle conference, basically showing how Nanocomp makes their yarns and felts and showing some of the amazing properties they have, for example, having a higher conductivity-to-weight ratio than copper! Noting that the production of yarns at Nanocomp is very similar to the production at Cambridge, it was interesting to highlight some of the differences and similarities between the two efforts. I then went into a more academic discussion of the termination mechanisms in nanotube growth to help highlight some of the reasons why nanotubes stop growing and how we can deal with each of these issues. I also showed some slides about efforts towards multi-centimeter carbon nanotube forests and continuous forest production at MIT and the University of Michigan from my research group, the Nano-engineered Aerospace Structures Consortium (necst.mit.edu). I also mentioned that we intend on competing in the 2008 competition as well, although we probably won’t win either. We will, however, demo our a continuous CNT loop which should exhibit significantly improved tensile strength over the tether we had last year.
As a side note I must say I have enjoyed meeting Marcello immensely. We both have a persistent, fundamental curiosity for understanding why nanotubes start growing, and why they stop. Very much an academic, Marcello is an excellent scientist and microscopist, which has given Cambridge a real edge in understanding their materials and how they form. Marcello also expressed his admiration for Nanocomp as an American company, who “knows how to get stuff done”.
Following my talk, Brad Edwards gave his talk about materials requirements for the space elevator. Brad pitched nanotubes for strength applications as a highly profitable prospect for Japanese firms. Brad described some of the efforts which he has associated himself with, for example the “supergrowth” group at the University of Cincinnati which produces 18 mm tall multi-wall carbon nanotube forests. Brad said that “we” have some new technologies and prospects for commercialization, but did not mention who “we” is. Brad also showed a slide titled “Toyota Space Elevator”, explaining how an investment of just $5 billion from a company like Toyota, “just 20%” of their revenue, could fund the space elevator and open up new avenues for profit and Japanese domination in the future.
Lastly we heard from Mr. Yahio Kashiyama from Japan Manned Space Systems Corporation about experimental possibilities aboard the Kibo module of the International Space Station (ISS), including the exposure module which will be launching this year that will allow the ISS to do space-exposure studies for materials. Yahio explained that the science aboard Kibo is already densely planned for the next 3-4 years. He also proposed that this would be a great opportunity to study the effects of space radiation and vacuum on the longevity of CNT materials, which will be required to understand if a space elevator will survive in space.After the conference, Akira and two of his colleagues, Bryan and his wife, Brad, Marcello, and myself went to see Tokyo Tower (which is bigger than the Eiffel Tower) and then out to dinner and enjoyed a number of Japanese dishes. We all then went back to the hotel and crashed. (Yawn!)
More from the conference to come.
(Photos of Marcello Motta and the Tokyo Tower courtesy Stephen Steiner – click on them for a larger version)
We have Stephen Steiner to thank for the following series of reports from the 1st Japanese Space Elevator Conference. Since I am unable to attend this conference, Stephen has kindly consented to send us some reports from it. Thanks Stephen!
Hello space elevator enthusiasts! This is Stephen Steiner from the strong tether team DeltaX reporting live from the First Japan Space Elevator Conference in Tokyo. Over the next three days I’ll be blogging from the conference for all of you who were unable to make it. First I will cover the Japan Space Elevator Association Carbon Nanotube Filament Seminar, which will take place on Friday prior to the conference, followed by coverage of the conference itself, which will take place Saturday and Sunday. Feel free to send questions along through Ted and I’ll do my best to answer them.
“ISEC promotes the development, construction and operation of a space elevator as a revolutionary and efficient way to space for all humanity”
This is the mission statement of the newly formed International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC), an organization created to encourage the growing international interest and momentum towards building a Space Elevator. Several attendees at the recent Space Elevator Conference in Seattle talked about pooling their efforts to get such an effort underway and, after a false start or two, we’ve now succeeded in forming this Consortium.
We have incorporated as a non-profit corporation in the State of California and are now working on establishing our Federal 501c3 status (and for those of you who would like to point out how difficult this is, I’d just like to say that IRS Form 1023 and I are old friends 🙂 ).
Several groups have joined together in this effort; The Spaceward Foundation, The Japan Space Elevator Association, EuroSpaceward, The Space Elevator Reference and this Space Elevator Blog. In addition to these groups, several other individuals (both long-timers in the Space Elevator community and newcomers from the Seattle conference) have joined this Consortium.
Yours truly has been chosen as the President of this organization; an honor which I find very humbling and exciting at the same time. I have lots of plans to aggressively grow this organization and make no mistake about it; our goal is nothing less than to get a Space Elevator built.
You will be hearing much, much more about this organization in the near future so stay tuned. In the meantime, I encourage you to head to the ISEC website and sign up for our newsletter so you can stay current with all of our efforts.
G’day mate! What could be better than cooking some shrimp on the barbie and a Tallie of amber fluid? Is there a space elevator in Australia’s future or doesn’t this stand Buckleys?
Money quote from the article:
“The Senate Standing Committee on Economics said Australia is missing out on significant innovation and technology opportunities because it lacks a space agency…among other possible projects highlighted by the committee was the building of a space elevator, essentially an extremely strong cable stretching from the surface up into space, off the coast of Western Australia.”
The location mentioned, “off the coast of Western Australia” has been identified as one of the very best locations to put a Space Elevator (near the equator and very unexciting weather all year ’round) and it’s nearly London to a brick, regardless of who builds the first one, it will be located here. It would make all sorts of sense for the Aussie’s to participate even though the chosen site is Back of Bourke, opposite the Coat Hanger.
One other item in the article of note – Australia was the fourth country to launch their own satellite, a fact I did not know. Then, of course, I was reminded of Woomera. Good onya mates!
One other Aussie note; Phil Ragan, co-author Leaving the Planet by Space Elevator, is, I believe, an Australian bloke, so perhaps he can help persuade the Australian government to Captain Cook this idea.
(Concept drawing of an ocean port from the LiftPort Archives, here. Picture of the Boomer from here. Click on it for a larger version. Australian slang from here.)
This weekend, the Japanese will take their first crack at holding a Space Elevator conference (note that this is NOT the same as them actually building a Space Elevator which was erroneously reported in a myriad of places in the mainstream press).
I had planned on attending this conference, but due to some circumstances which are totally beyond bizarre, I’m going to be forced to miss it. I’m hoping to have some news reports emailed to me which I will post as soon as I get them.
If you’re going, I envy you and I have every intention of attending the inevitable 2009 Japan Space Elevator Conference.
So, if you’re already in Japan, and aren’t doing anything special this weekend, this would be a great way to spend your time.
Yes dear readers, my blog finally has a masthead I’m proud of, and I have Susan Seichrist to thank for this! Susan has been diligently working on this project, sending me idea after idea after idea on what the masthead could and should look like. What you see at the top is the fruits of her labors and I hope you like it as much as I do.
Who is Susan Seichrist? Well, let her tell you who she is in her own words:
I have a BA in Graphic Design from SUNY – Fredonia campus and have worked for a number of advertising and design firms for 25 years. I started my career in typography, which in retrospect was not a good career choice (thank you Apple). I transferred to graphic design and print production in the advertising world and have worked on pretty much every kind of print project. But with the web, there isn’t the need for print as much.
What I love about design is getting the chance to learn about whatever field or company I am designing for, learning about things that I would not have on my own. With the Spaceward Games, for example, I have had the chance to design all kinds of things, from logos to ads to outdoor signage to name badges to T-shirts.
These days I offer office management services to start-ups and small companies, and I do print freelance projects when they come along. My portfolio is available by request.
I’ve always been envious of people who have artistic / design skills (I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler). When Susan first took on this project, I didn’t know what to expect. I saw the graphics she had done for Spaceward and was totally blown away by them, but could she work the same magic for me? She first sent me 8-9 possible masthead designs, all completely different; some modern, some whimsical, some stark, and some complicated. Some had lots of colors and some had few colors. All of them looked great and it was with great difficulty that I finally chose one of the themes she sent me as my favorite. But she wasn’t satisfied with her first attempt at the chosen theme. Over several iterations, she kept fine-tuning the results until what you see today is the result. I repeat, I’m thrilled by it – thank you Susan!
Some people may remember Susan from the previous Space Elevator Games. In addition to doing the graphics work for the Games, she was one of those indispensable, behind-the-scenes people who made it all work. Attendees may also remember her as the ‘Visited by a dragonfly’ lady.
If you want to contact Susan and enlist her services, you can email her at susan.seichrist@spaceward.org. She is wonderful to work with.
Oh, and she’s married to Ben Shelef (the head of Spaceward) so I’m sure you’ll see her at the upcoming Games too…
Thanks again Susan – this blog’s masthead now looks ‘professionally done’ because, well, it WAS ‘professionally done’.
If you visit the original Space Elevator site, you’ll see that it’s author, Marc Boucher, has succeeded in the upgrade that he has been working on for some time. On Marc’s Nano2Sol website, he talks about the tools he has used to accomplish this upgrade and what benefits they can offer:
“For some time now SpaceRef has wanted to create an online collaborative service for the space community. It took some time though to try and find the right platform that would allow us to provide the community with the appropriate tools so they could in turn create rich interactive collaborate services.
I’m happy to say that we’ve now launched our new service called ColabSpace under our brand OnOrbit.
The goal of the service is to provide the tools that will allow users to effectively collaborate on a project increasing productivity so that any given project moves ahead in a timely manner to conclusion.
For the platform we decided to use Deki, a social enterprise collaborative platform from MindTouch.
…
We’re already using the service ourselves for the Space Elevator Reference were we’ve launched an Open Wiki and are working towards launching a Developers Wiki.”
If you own/author a ‘space-related’ site, you might want to check out the tools that ColabSpace can offer you.
Astute readers may have noticed the latest entry in the ‘Upcoming events’ section of this blog (right-hand column) – the next Space Elevator Conference to be held in the USA.
Preliminary plans call for the Conference to be held in the same venue as the one earlier this year was; at the Microsoft Conference Center in Redmond Washington. Conference dates are scheduled to be Thursday, August 13th through Sunday, August 16th, 2009, with a possible evening show on Wednesday, August 12th.
Be there or be square!
Today is the day that Iron Man – The End was released to the public. I sauntered over to my local comic book store about 11:00am this morning only to find that they were sold out already! Hopefully, you’ll still be able to find one in your area.
I ordered a copy and it’s supposed to be in my hands next Wednesday or Thursday – I’ll write more about it then. I also have an interview with Bob Layton (the storyline author) to publish along with it.
On the LaserMotive blog, Tom Nugent opines on how relatively ‘easy’ the Lunar Landing challenge looked and how hard it was in retrospect. He also comments on how this applies to the Climber / Power-Beaming competition in the Space Elevator Games; something which looks easy but turns out not to be…
‘Tis true, tis true… Systems of this complexity (and make no doubt about it – these Climber/Power-Beaming systems ARE complex) take lots of engineering and even more debugging to get right. Integration testing is even more fun 🙂 You can have sub-system “A” which works just fine and sub-system “B” which works just fine and sub-system “C” which works just fine too, but when you put them together, well, the interactions between the various components can make things act in a very odd (and undesirable) manner.
Along the way, we’ve had more teams than not drop out because they underestimated the complexity of the task in front of them (and/or they couldn’t get funding – always a big deal, too). This year alone we had 14 teams sign up, but we’ll be happy if we get 5-6 competitors who actually have something at the Games which has a shot at the prize money (even with all the delays we’ve had in scheduling it).
Read Tom’s post – he’s so young to be so wise 🙂
Back in August, I had put up a post about how Tony Stark (aka The Iron Man) was going to oversee the building of the world’s first commercial Space Elevator. The release date (according to Bob Layton’s website) for this issue of Iron Man has now been set for November 5th – the day after election day.
From the preview:
“It’s the middle decades of the 21st century. After a lifetime fighting crime, corporate evil and super-powered villainy as Iron Man, industrialist and inventor Tony Stark faces his biggest challenge ever: building the legacy he will leave humankind after he’s gone. But when his world-changing project comes under attack, Tony must fight espionage and super-villainy once more…perhaps for the final time.”
I’ve included two graphics from Layton’s website. One looks like a Space Station, perhaps at the end of the tether (though I can’t see the tether) while the other looks like an earth-port under-construction. But I could be wrong on both – we’ll see when the comic book comes out.
Mark your calendars!
(Click on the images for a (slightly) larger version or, better yet, visit Bob’s website to see more graphics from this edition)
As promised in my last post, I’ve found some new Space Elevator graphics that I’ll share with you. I found this first set via the website io9, a ‘different’ site I’ve posted about before. The title of the post was “Imagining the Chuck Klosterman Space Elevator“. Chuck is a writer for Esquire magazine and he published a future history of the 21st century. In this history, he predicts;
“JUNE 22, 2043: As predicted by Arthur C. Clarke in 3001: The Final Odyssey, the orbiting luxury hotel is connected to Earth by a massive space elevator. Hyperstrong cables anchored to the earth near the equator (as required by physics) stretch 100,000 kilometers into the sky, rising into the hotel’s lobby.”
Of course he also predicted that McCain would win the election next week and, among other things, that on “MAY 8, 2030: A deathbed confession by George W. Bush reveals that JFK was, in fact, assassinated by the CIA.” and on “OCT. 19, 2071: An army of panda bears attacks Beijing, killing twelve hundred people and wounding thousands more during a bloody four-day onslaught.” The CIA assassinated JFK? Maybe, but I’m not buying the Panda Bear thing… 🙂
Anyway, back to the graphics I promised. These first two graphics in this post were shown with that ‘Chuck Klosterman…’ story and credited to artist Bruce Irving. They came from Flickr, posted by “Flying Singer”. The first is the earth-based Elevator rising to a Space Hotel while the second is an Elevator on Mars. If you visit the Flickr site, you’ll see that the earth-based Elevator graphic is an ‘active’ one with various call-outs as you mouse around the picture. A visit to Flying Singer’s Flickr site is highly recommended – lots of cool photos and graphics to peruse…
This next graphic comes from Arie Wijaya’s website. On this site, he discusses the Online Times article (he’s the 5,259,027 blogger who has picked this up 🙂 ). He doesn’t give credit for the graphic, so I don’t know where it came from – might even be from the LiftPort archives.
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Finally, from the LaserMotive blog, we see this picture of ‘horribles’ being perpetrated on a gold-plated mirror. Visit the LaserMotive blog for the rest of the story on this travesty…
And that, truly, catches us up with all of the backlog in my Search Engines.
(As always, click on the picture thumbnails for a larger version)
Continuing from the last post, here are a few more odds ‘n ends relating to the Space Elevator which have occurred lately…
And what is this, you might ask? It’s how you write “Space Elevator” in Armenian. At the July Space Elevator conference in Redmond, I had the pleasure to meet Karen Ghazaryan. He gave a talk on Sunday entitled; “Stability of Superconducting Cable Used for Transportation of Electrical Current from Space“. In the lunch period afterwards, I chatted with him and took the opportunity to ask him to add Armenian to my Translation Project. He graciously consented and now we have it. Oh, by the way, the pronunciation is “Tiyezerakan Verelak”. Thank you Karen!
The Space Elevator skeptics are having their say… Recently I linked to an article on Discovery Space from Spaceward‘s Ben Shelef, discussing benefits that a Space Elevator will bring. Discovery Tech has now posted an ‘opposing viewpoint’ from Italian professor Nicola M. Pugno. His objection is that inherent defects in carbon nanotubes will prevent it from ever being strong enough to create a Space Elevator tether (he’s weighed in on this before). But he’s not an opponent of the idea as he says that his team has come up with a plan to build a ‘flaw-tolerant’ tether. Professor Pugno is my kind of skeptic – find an objection and then find a way to overcome it.
Here is a posting from another skeptic, tech-archive.net (‘Space Elevator’ idea almost as stupid as the ISS), in which the author gives no reasons it won’t work – just quotes one of the of the articles which came out of “Japan is building a Space Elevator craze” and says that we need to restart Project Orion if we really want to get to space. And in the same vein, here’s a skeptic who argued that a Laser powered climber isn’t practical, only to then have a REAL laser expert (Dr. Jordin Kare – a member of the Lasermotive team, among other distinctions) disagree. Dr. Kare’s money quote: “There are certainly reasons to be skeptical about space elevators, but the laser power transmission system really isn’t one.” Read the whole exchange and make up your own mind. I don’t mind skeptics, I just mind those who haven’t bothered to do their homework.
Speaking of Dr. Kare, he was recently a speaker at the Space Solar Power conference in Florida. Some of his remarks were captured (by blogger Transterrestial Musings) along with other, relevant, power-beaming comments.
And for our final “skeptic” note, here’s someone who is not a skeptic that Space Elevator can be built, but is afraid that it won’t be we Americans who do it. I hope he’s wrong – he might not be.
I’ve already talked about the swell of publicity that surrounded the Online Times story about the Japanese “building a space elevator’, but one more article, this one from the Russian media, is worth noting. The author, Yuri Zaitsev, talks about the Space Elevator, in general, (and notes that it’s a Russian invention) and he also talks about tether experiments in space – which I found interesting. I love to hear what the Russians have to say about the Space Elevator. In some ways, their space program equals or exceeds ours. They have everything they need to build a Space Elevator (except the tether, of course, which we’re all waiting on). I’ve previously posted about the ‘Russian perspective’ (here, here and here) which is very valuable, of course, but who can forget the travesty that they visited on Madonna…
And, moving from Madonna to Dr. Bryan Laubscher, Bryan recently gave a talk at the Bellevue Community College about the promise and challenges of building a Space Elevator. Let’s hope that he has inspired at least one or two people to join this effort.
Finally, here’s an article from the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.com asking the public which of five proposals would they support for a ‘destination center’ (a Canadian euphemism, I think, for ‘tourist stop’). One of the possibilities is; “Innovation showcase: U of S is interested in partnering with the museum and creativity centre in one connected space. The university is looking at showcasing the innovative projects students create, such as components for the space elevator, for example.” ‘U of S’ is, I’m sure, the University of Saskatchewan and THAT means the USST team.
And that nearly catches us up. My next post will have some cool new space-elevator graphics that I’ve found – along with a few other bits and pieces that have showed up in my search engines…
(Picture of Madonna from here. Picture of Dr. Laubscher from here. Picture of Professor Pugno from here. Click on any of them for a larger version.)
I’ve gotten a bit behind on all Space-Elevator related news, so I’ll combine a few items in this post;
There have been several news reports recently (a few of them are here, here, and here) about the unmanned ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-1. This mission is designed, among other tasks, to more thoroughly map the moon. A dozen instruments are on board; half from ISRO and half from other countries. What does this have to do with a Space Elevator? It’s just another step in the maturation of the Indian Space Program and India, as I have written before (here and here) is a prime candidate to actually ‘do it’ when it comes to building a Space Elevator (IMHO, of course)…
The Speculist is running a competition to, well, let them tell you: “As we announced on the most recent edition of FastForward Radio, we will be awarding the presidential candidate who outlines the most speculicious program — that is, the plan with the most Speculist appeal — with a FastForward Radio coffee mug…And a reminder to both Senator Obama and Senator McCain — if either happen to be reading this — any use by either of you of the phrase “space elevator” ought to just about clinch this thing. So don’t be shy.”
I have already commented on the incredible amount of press generated by the Times Online story saying that the Japanese have now begun work on building a Space Elevator (oh, if it were only true). However, one blog post about this (from The Rogues Gallery) is worth commenting on. The author states that whoever builds the first space elevator “owns space – game over.” I must disagree. Let’s assume that my prediction of a Dubai-India Joint Venture comes true and they go out and build the first one. Does this mean that the US (or the Russians) couldn’t go out and build one themselves? They certainly could. It would be expensive (I don’t know if Dubai-India would sell space on their Elevator for a competitor), but we could certainly do it. And if we Americans built one first? The Russians (or Chinese or whoever) could build one for national security concerns. The cost of building one of these ($10 Billion?) is a lot of money, but there are several entities with this kind of resources. So, building one of these gives you a leg up, that’s for sure – but ‘game over’? I don’t think so…
Finally (for today, anyway), the TV Tropes Wiki has a list of places where the Space Elevator has appeared in fiction. There are several I’ve not heard of (my favorite is “Bubblegum Crisis”) and, will give me something else to look at in my ‘spare’ time…
More bits ‘n pieces tomorrow…
(Knight Sabers picture from here – click on it for a larger version)
Over the past several days, I’ve put up posts relating to both the KC Space Pirates and the National Space Society (NSS) Power-Beaming / Climber teams and their ongoing tests. Both teams (along with 3 others) are recipients of an extraordinarily generous offer from TRUMPF – an offer to provide an 8kW laser (with crew!) for their entries in the upcoming Space Elevator Games.
I thought it would be interesting to see the ‘other side’ of the tests; i.e. what TRUMPF had to say about them. I asked Dave Marcotte, TRUMPF’s point man in this project, what he could tell me. Here is what he had to say:
TRUMPF recently completed three days of testing with two of our Space Elevator teams, the Space Pirates and NSS. Two days of testing were held outdoors and one day indoors.
The three days of testing were somewhat high pressure for the TRUMPF crew. The schedule of the “road show” would not allow for any equipment malfunctions. Three days, three startups, and three decommissions were required to meet the needs of the teams. It was unusual for us to move a pre-assembled laser system across the state on a soft sided flat bed truck and startup the 8kW laser system outside, in cold weather, powered from a portable generator.For the three days of testing, TRUMPF supplied both teams with clean dry compressed air, chilled re-circulating water, 8kW of laser power through a 30 meter long fiber optic cable, an EStop Button and a “laser on/off” switch.
The first day of testing was with the Space Pirates. After accommodating a few forgotten items we were underway. Outside testing was very controlled to ensure absolute safety. The Space Pirates tested on the first day until after dark.
On day two of testing we woke to a bit of a surprise. At 7 a.m. we came out of the motel and found Ice, not frost, Ice on the trucks. With the cooling water left in the laser from the first day of testing, we had visions of a frozen laser, burst laser pumping chambers and expensive repairs. With high hopes, we returned to the outdoor test site and connected the generator. Tension was high while we waited for the laser to come up to operating temperature. Everyone was relieved when over 8kW laser power was generated without issue.Day two of testing was with the NSS team which continued until dusk. That evening when decommissioning TRUMPF removed every drop of water from the laser and chiller – just to be safe.
Day three was the easiest and most exciting of the three. The truck driver left the outdoor site at about 4 a.m. Just prior to 8 a.m. he pulled the tractor trailer into the interior of a large building near Detroit. The Space Pirates team pulled inside next to the flatbed. The cold temperatures of the early morning trip from the outdoor test site to the indoor test site resulted in a slight delay in laser start up because the Freon in the chillers was too cold to circulate. Once up and running, the equipment performance was again “per specification”. Using a block and tackle and a couple of steel tri-pods anchored to the floor, we suspended a 3/16″ diameter cable horizontally for the length of the building. The suspended cable provided an additional testing resource for the team.
We decommissioned our road show at about 7 p.m. and went to our homes, very tired, and very happy. Both the Space Pirates and NSS are great teams. TRUMPF looks forward to the start of the Space Elevator competition.
In an update, Dave informed me that “…all testing was in Michigan. Equipment assembly was in Plymouth Michigan. We traveled about 4 hours to the Northern Michigan site, then south to the Detroit site and then back to Plymouth.”
Thank you to Dave and his team (Sheila LaMoth and Rolf Biekert) for this update and special thanks for what you and TRUMPF are contributing! It’s due, in part, to efforts like this that I feel our chances of awarding prize money this year are better than ever.
Over at the Discovery Channel’s DiscoverySPACE section, Spaceward’s Ben Shelef gives us a feel for what a Space Elevator tether might look like at ground level and discusses the benefits we might expect when these come into existence…
Money quote:
“…payload size is practically unlimited because space elevators can be built to any scale. Replace the quarter-inch tether with a 2.5-inch tether, and the elevator could lift 100 times the weight. That’s more than 1,000 tons in this case — about 40 shipping containers or three complete International Space Stations (ISS) — per day!”
Currently the assembled ISS components weigh 300,214 kg – about 300 metric tons.
3 of these per day? That’s what I’m talking about…
The question arises, of course, who would want to ship that much stuff up into space… To answer that question, take a look at the history of railroads in this country (or in any country). As soon as the freight capacity was there, people came up with all sorts of things to send from Chicago to Oregon or New York to Los Angeles. Once this capability was put into place, people began shipping stuff cross-country that once seemed fanciful; everything from refrigerated food and automobiles to raw materials, people and livestock. And now that energy efficiency is becoming important again, railroads are becoming more important than ever.
Items traveling up the Space Elevator will be inside standardized shipping containers. Individuals and companies who want to move into space, or visit other places, or put satellites into orbit or manufacture things in space, etc. will use these containers. You won’t have to worry about things shaking loose or having to be subjected to crushing g-forces. There will be a shipping depot on the ground (or in the ocean) to load and one or more depots in space to unload. Shippers will be given a bulk rate and a container size to work with – the rest will be up to them.
And, shipping will work both ways. Once material can be gathered in/from space (be it raw materials or items that are manufactured/grown in space), the Space Elevator can bring them back down. Return items will also be in those same standardized shipping containers – no “Shuttle tiles” necessary to stand the heat of re-entry.
We cannot possibly imagine all the uses of the Space Elevator, but only the truly unimaginative can fail to see how it will benefit mankind.
Thanks to the miracle of YouTube, the BBC Video with the National Space Society (NSS) Space Elevator Team is now available (I blogged about this earlier, here).
The theme is that the Space Elevator would make a wonderful vehicle for lifting Solar Power Satellites into space. The video is in two parts;
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OKbeb2Rank&feature=related[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVM31dvngmE&feature=related[/youtube]
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It’s nice to see Matt Abrahms (from the old StarClimber team) again – Hi Matt!
Enjoy…
Oh, and the quote in the title of this post? That comes from the narrator of these videos, James May. He also has that wonderful pronunciation of our state of Maryland (“Mare-eee-land”).
The most recent entry in the LaserMotive blog discusses how they are constructing their travelling laser road-show; specifically the box/trailer that they will be bringing their laser-setup in for the next Space Elevator Games. They needed to modify their trailer by (among other things) cutting a hole in the ceiling for their laser-beam to be aimed through.
From their blog entry:
“Since the power beaming competition rules specify that teams must bring their power beaming source in some form of ‘big box’ (a trailer or cargo container) from which they aim their beam roughly vertically, once we bought a trailer, we needed to modify it.”
Last year, LaserMotive suffered from having to construct their power source on the launch pad (which I blogged about here). This year, even if the rules hadn’t required it, I’m sure LaserMotive would be planning on bringing an already-put-together-rig…
Click on the picture for a larger view – and visit the LaserMotive blog for more pictures and more details…
I received an email from Markus Klettner, head of EuroSpaceward, informing me that the upcoming European Conference on Space Elevator and CNT Tether Design can now be registered for online.
Just go to their main website and, in a popup (actually a ‘drop-down’ 🙂 ) advertising the conference appears. Click on it and you will be taken to the registration page.
I had previously blogged about their upcoming program here.
I’ve received two updates from Bert Murray, captain of the NSS Space Elevator team.
The first is about a BBC TV show that their climber was featured on. The show series is “James May Big Idea: Power to the People“. I had blogged about the making of this show, before, in April – and it’s finally made it to the small screen. Unfortunately, you can only see it if you are a UK resident. If you are, drop me a line / comment to let me know what it looked like (or send me the YouTube link 🙂 ).
From the show notes:
Continuing his journey to the US, James encounters a group of dedicated aerospace engineers who are planning to make a lift that will reach 20,000 miles into the skies. Their idea is to build a power station in space. James watches enthralled as they take their first tentative steps towards their goal – and a crack at a $2million [£1million] prize.
Their second item concerns recent laser testing they have done. Hot on the heels of the KC Space Pirates announcing that they were successfully able to beam useful power for a full kilometer, NSS announces that they, too, can do this:
“The NSS Team has completed four Laser tests with Trumpf. The last test was long range and outside shooting over 1Km. Attached is an IR photo of powering a “test array” from 1000 meters.”
You can view the picture online or click on the thumbnail for the full-size version.
The 59th International Astronautical Congress was recently held (Sep 29 – Oct 3) in Glasgow, Scotland. I have been to Glasgow and other points in Scotland – it is a beautiful place – and would have loved to attended this congress. But I’m already spending too much money and time on this ‘hobby’ and have to pick my spots… 🙂
However our own Dr. Peter Swan (co-author of Space Elevator Systems Architecture) attended (and presented) and has emailed out these notes from the Congress:
The sessions at the International Astronautical Federation Congress in Glasgow were very successful and exciting with its presentations. The one I really enjoyed was the reporting on the success / problems of the YES2 tethered Space Mail flight. Real space tethers with modest success is always a delight to see in our industry. (Note – I blogged about this here). In addition, we had the 6th annual Space Elevator Luncheon.
The papers that were presented were:
Session I
- What if? Space Solar Power was Enabled by Space Elevators (this was Dr. Swan’s presentation)
- Sling-on-a-ring: A realizable space elevator to LEO?
Session II
- Cost Effective disposal of Geosynchronous Satellites by Means of Tethers
- Survey of GEO Debris Removal Concepts
- Space Debris & Space Elevator
- Mid-Earth Orbit Momentum Transfer Tether for Reduced Space Access Costs
- Dynamics of a Partial Elevator with Multiple Climbers
- Tethers as sustainable space transportation: Implications from the YES2 tethered SpaceMail development and flight results
- Improving Stability of the Space Cable
- The partial space beanstalk: its applications to space migration and commerce.
There will be one session on Space Elevators in the Korean conference in October of 2009. As this location is near the activities in Japan, I would hope for much interest and many abstracts turned in prior to the deadline in March.
Pete
and…
I have finally made it back from Scotland… what fun and great scenery. I now know why the Scottish have a mystic feeling about them. The Ilse of Skye was remarkable and full of stark beauty.
Oh well, the conference over there went well and the topic of Space Elevators kept coming up thanks to the announcement of the Japanese right before the activities. Many people asked about status and when the space elevator games were being scheduled, so I had a chance to fill them in on the European and US games… as well as the Japanese and European conferences. Maybe some of them will show up. The next International Astronautical Federation Congress will be in Korea in Oct 09 and will just be around the corner from the Japanese efforts. Maybe we can have a great Asian showing at that one.
It sounds like it was a very interesting conference and I look forward to being able to access the proceedings.
As noted above, the 60th IAC will be held in Korea, and it is scheduled for Oct 12-16, 2009.
Thanks Pete!
I received this latest email from Brian Turner, captain of the Kansas City Space Pirates:
“We just completed another round of testing with the TRUMPF laser. Although not without problems the important tests were successful.
The most important test was the full range 1km power beam. This test was successful and even exceeded expectations. Beaming useful amounts of power 1km is something that few have done. I can’t say yet exactly how much power we beamed, but enough to make our 5 meters per second goal.
A scientific milestone has been passed.
Brian Turner
Captain
KC Space Pirates”
5 m/s over a full kilometer would make for some GREAT footage…
The 1st Japan Space Elevator Conference is coming up very quickly, only about 5&1/2 weeks away. The Times Online story about this conference has been picked up by EVERYONE.
It is going to be a noteworthy event, one well worth attending. The Japan Space Elevator Association website has now been translated into English as well as the conference flyer (available here and also on their website, of course).
From the conference flyer:
“Japan Space Elevator Association (JSEA) will hold the first Japan Space Elevator Conference 2008 (JpSEC2008) where ”the Space Elevator”, the space vehicle having a potential to drastically change the future for mankind, will be discussed.
The program details are described as below.In this first conference, in addition to the technical sessions for scientists and engineers in the field, noticeable scientists and guests from both home and abroad will deliver lectures to widely introduce the Space Elevator to the public and provide the audience an opportunity to think about and discuss the future of Japan.”
As with the December European Space Elevator conference (recently mentioned here on this blog), a veritable list of “Who’s who” will be giving presentations. If you are at all interested in this idea, you should make every effort to attend one or both of these conferences.
With the American Space Elevator Conference (held in July), the Japan Space Elevator Conference (coming in November), the European Conference on Space Elevator & Carbon Nanotube Tether Design (coming in December), the upcoming Space Elevator Games (coming up in the first quarter of 2009) and the growing knowledgebase regarding the manufacturing and handling of carbon nanotubes, the momentum is clearly building. Every day I grow more optimistic that I may actually get to see this thing built and that is the number one item on my “Bucket List“.
See you in Japan!
One of my very favorite comics is xkcd.com. Their view on things is, well, to say the least, unique.
A few days ago, they had a comic which showed “Height“…
Now they have one which shows “Depth“…
The authors of these cartoons love to draw in little “in the know” bits. Note the “Edge of Federation Sector 0-0-1” in the “Height” image and Peter Norton shooting down a bacteriophage and the “IPOD Femto” in the “Depth” image.
But the real prize in the “Depth” image is the carbon nanotubes and resulting Space Elevator. We’re everywhere! We’re everywhere!
This website / cartoon strip is HIGHLY recommended. Put it into your RSS reader – it really is worthwhile.
Wikipedia has an extensive entry regarding XKCD – very interesting reading…
Finally, let me link to an earlier post I did with an XKCD cartoon – one with James Bond and the centrifuge.
On December 6th and 7th this year, the above-named conference will be held in Luxembourg. A flyer has been prepared and released and is available here (cover page) and here ( inside page). It is also available on the EuroSpaceward website.
From the flyer:
“The conference will bring together some of the world’s leading researchers and engineers on space elevator systems and carbon nanotube fiber production along with experts from the private elevator, laser, nanotechnology and space industries. The object of the event is to push the technology development by examining and discussing the status quo of designs of space elevator systems and super strong carbon nanotube (CNT) tethers.”
It promises to be an excellent conference and I’m looking forward to going – mark your calendars!
To any CNN.com readers who found their way here via the Spaceward link in the Space Elevator story you read, welcome to the Space Elevator Blog! Here I try and keep everyone up-to-date with all things Space Elevator related – I’m glad you stopped by.
In case you’re wondering, the Space Elevator is NOT a loony idea. The physics are sound and the benefits of a Space Elevator, cheap and reliable access to space for huge quantities of just about anything you care to ship up there, are staggering. Yes, the engineering challenges are formidable and the key ingredient, carbon nanotubes of sufficient strength and in sufficient number are not yet available. But that’s what Engineers do with engineering challenges, they solve them.
The state of the art in engineering carbon nanotubes is advancing by leaps and bounds. People I know and trust believe that carbon nanotube fibers with the quality needed to create a Space Elevator will be available in the next few years.
In addition to the engineering challenges, there will be legal issues, political issues and, of course, business issues to be addressed. But where there are huge benefits and huge profits to be made (both possible with the Space Elevator), these issues can be overcome. Stay tuned…
If the idea of the Space Elevator intrigues you, I urge you to put this blog into your RSS feed. Two other sites which you should also check out are the Spaceward site (the home of the Space Elevator Games) and the Space Elevator Reference.
Finally, let me make you aware of the Space Elevator Games. This is a 5 year challenge, sponsored with 4 million dollars of money from NASA. There are two competitions, one in power-beaming and one in creating strong tethers. Both of these technologies will be absolutely essential to build a space elevator and the Spaceward Foundation has partnered with NASA to promote these technologies/competitions. This year is the fourth year of the challenge. If you are interested in learning more about this, visit the Spaceward Foundation website. If you’d like to see what happened at the games last year or the prior year, just do a search on this blog for 2007 Space Elevator Games or 2006 Space Elevator Games.
And thanks for reading…
That story put out a couple of weeks ago about how the Japanese are now working on building a Space Elevator has received more play than anything else I’ve ever seen Space-Elevator related, even more than the Space Elevator Games. I’ve blogged about how there really isn’t anything new in this article – but it sure seems to have taken off.
It’s now even on Indian (New Delhi) TV – a clip was recently posted on YouTube:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xya5S1AJ2sU[/youtube]
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Just another piece of the puzzle falling into place for my long-predicted Dubai-Indian Space Elevator…
I use an RSS reader (FeedDemon) to try and keep up with all of the websites I follow. Occasionally I have a problem with it and it causes me to miss some postings from some sites. Evidently, this is what happened with the feed from the McGill Space Elevator Team site because they’ve been posting fairly frequently and I haven’t been paying attention. If I hadn’t seen an entry about this team on Ray’s Space Prizes blog, I might have neglected them for a while longer…
Sorry guys…
Anyway, they have several progress entries up on their blog, from making the decision to switch from Microwave power to Laser power to a redesign of their climber to the testing that they are doing. Their latest post reads:
“We will start climber testing around mid October on a 20m wire suspended from a staircase. Instead of using the laser outside, we plan on using 1 to 3 theatre spotlights to do some smaller climbs and more debugging.”
The last posting I put up about their team was last March, here. Their site’s home page is here and their blog home is here. Check them out – it looks like they’re moving right along…
I received the following update from Brian Turner, captain of the Kansas City Space Pirates:
“Lots going on. We are quite busy around here. All of our scheduled testing is happening.
We recently returned from Detroit and had an eventful and ultimately successful round of testing. The troubles ranged from minor stuff like flood related detours stealing our sleep and poison ivy oil on the steering wheel, to a tracking system that was overwhelmed by the brightness of the very laser it was meant to direct, and… a fire.
OK, I will start with the fire. A dust cover adjacent to the laser path was overheated by reflected laser light. This led to a cascading failure resulting an impressive amount of black smoke and a tiny little fire. It is a rookie mistake made by us rookies. That ended day 1 of testing but the team pulled it together while the frustrated and exhausted captain went to sleep, They cleaned all the soot off of the high power optics and had us up and running only a little bit into day 2. Yes, another all-nighter for the cause. Good thing too, as on day 2 we found a solution to the overwhelmed tracking system and finished off our scheduled testing.
These are exactly the kind of problems that this type of controlled testing is meant to reveal, it’s just that having them does not exactly make me happy. The final result is that all of the other critical performance metrics were square on the numbers. We beamed power a short distance with a laser and ran our climber’s motor with it.
The competition has been delayed. Yes, this is the third time. But the facility that Spaceward is working on looks to be an excellent place for the competition. And we had hit crash schedule to keep with former date of Nov. 7th. So I have to welcome the delay. The new date has not been set but Dec. and Jan. both look to be out.
We leave this week for long range testing with the real laser. We have a rather hairy to do list in the next couple of days to get all the systems together. This test should reveal any last/hidden weaknesses in our systems. We are still wrestling with some other issues, so we are not done by any means but I will feel much better when we have hard data on power conversion at the full KM range.
On a personal note my oldest and second largest customer’s owner died unexpectedly of a heart attack. Alan was the guy that got me started in the career that I have today. I will be quite busy filling in for some of his duties and training his son to be the new general manager. Again, I have to welcome the competition delay. And if you ever find yourself wondering if you should call 911 when you’re having chest pains, I hope you risk saying yes rather than no. I will miss him.
Most research projects would consider this upcoming test the end result. But in the Space Elevator Games it is just one step along the way and is a big part of what differentiates this challenge from a “Lab” experiment.
Brian Turner
Captain
KC Space Pirates”
So, it sounds like they’re making good progress (and from this team, I would expect nothing less). As I’ve said before, I think they have to be considered one of the favorites for this competition.
I am very sorry to hear about Alan’s passing and I can only agree with Brian’s recommendation of calling 911 if there is any question of an emergency.
Over at SpaceFellowship.com, they have just posted an interview with Elon Musk, he of SpaceX fame (as well as PayPal, Tesla Motors and SolarCity). The interview covered many subjects. including the Space Elevator. He’s not a fan.
“Question: I know that SpaceX has plenty on its plate right now. However, any thoughts on using your techology after you go public on the construction of a Space Elevator? Private or Public?
Elon Musk: It will be a *long* time, if ever, before the economics of a space elevators make sense. Consider that no one has decided to build a bridge from New York to London and that would be way easier than building a space elevator.”
That’s an odd answer, to say the least. Why would anyone want to build a bridge from New York to London? We already have commercial shipping and air transport that gets things to/from one side of the pond to the other. He really thinks we should drive between New York and London? Rest stops? Gasoline stations? Restaurants? In the middle of the Atlantic? When someone can fly from New York to London in just a few hours? I think he’s totally missing the point, especially considering a quote a little later on in the interview:
“Question: Do you have an estimate of when the common person will be able to take advantage of the fruits of the SpaceX program?
Elon Musk: Depends on how common. If we can make reusability work well, I think we can get the cost per person to orbit down to a few million dollars within eight to ten years. If reusability works well and demand is strong, so that we can distribute overhead over a large number of launches, it could one day get to under $1M.”
“Under $1M“. Gee, how exciting… 🙁
On the other hand, I do tend to agree with his assessment of Space Solar Power:
“Question: Should not NASA be funding research to make Space Solar Power possible in this time of energy crisis as they did in the 1970’s?
Elon Musk: No, I don’t believe in space solar power. It will never be competitive with ground solar power. The cost of converting the electron energy to photon energy and then back again on the ground overwhelms the 2X increase in solar incidence. And that’s before you consider the cost of transporting the solar panels and converters to orbit!”
It’s a very interesting interview – check it out.
(Picture of Elon Musk and the Falcon2 from here. Click on it for a larger version.)
