{"id":1336,"date":"2009-12-01T14:30:35","date_gmt":"2009-12-01T20:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/?p=1336"},"modified":"2009-12-01T14:30:35","modified_gmt":"2009-12-01T20:30:35","slug":"eurospaceward-conference-and-the-future-of-space-elevator-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/?p=1336","title":{"rendered":"EuroSpaceward Conference – and the future of Space Elevator Development"},"content":{"rendered":"

I leave this evening to fly to Luxembourg.\u00a0 There I will attend the\u00a0EuroSpaceward<\/a> Conference on “Space Elevator, CNT Tether Design & Lunar Industrialization Challenges<\/em>“.\u00a0 I’ll also be\u00a0giving a presentation entitled: Space Elevator Consortium: stimulation and alignment of SE research activities<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Saying all of that is quite a mouthful…<\/p>\n

I’m still polishing my presentation (sorry Markus)\u00a0but will share it with my readers after I give it.\u00a0 I can give you the abstract however:<\/p>\n

In the many years since the concept of a Space Elevator has been popularized and advanced in Science Fiction, the number of people actively supporting this concept has not appreciably increased. In addition, the theoretical and practical boundaries on the strength of carbon nanotubes are beginning to point towards a material weaker than hoped for (but still strong enough to build a Space Elevator, albeit with reduced capacity). Given these facts, how do those of us in the Space Elevator community move this idea forward?<\/em><\/p>\n

We first need to recognize and acknowledge that the Space Elevator is a \u201csolution in search of a problem\u201d. We then must find the need that a Space Elevator (and only a Space Elevator) can fulfill. The author proposes that the goals of Space Solar Power and the colonization of the Moon and Mars can only be accomplished with a Space Elevator and he further proposes that the Space Elevator community speak with one voice on this topic and work to ally itself with the proponents of Space Solar Power and Moon\/Mars colonization.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While the recent successes at the Space Elevator Games certainly has been a ‘shot in the arm’ for the Space Elevator effort, it is no secret that we’re still a small group – and not really growing.\u00a0 Why is this?\u00a0 Certainly a major reason is that the long\/strong carbon nanotubes needed to build a Space Elevator do not yet exist.\u00a0 But another reason, I think, is that everyone in the effort has their own ideas on what a Space Elevator can and cannot do and, consequently, their own ideas on how to proceed.\u00a0 If there were thousands and thousands of us, this would be all well and good.\u00a0 But with such a small community, these non-unified efforts quickly lead to little or no results.\u00a0 This has to change.\u00a0 As the President of the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC), <\/a>it’s my job to do this.\u00a0 I need to get all of us to rally around a common theme, a common goal, a common purpose – and that common purpose has to be more than just “Let’s build a Space Elevator because it’s cool”.\u00a0 That’s not going to get it done.\u00a0 As I say in the abstract, we need to find the critical need(s) for which a Space Elevator is the best or only solution and then ally ourselves with people working to satisfy those needs.<\/p>\n

I am going to be paying MUCH closer attention than I have in the past to people who want to colonize the Moon and\/or Mars as I think the Space Elevator is the only way to go to accomplish these goals.\u00a0 The more realistic souls\u00a0among these groups\u00a0(i.e., those who have come up with some defensible numbers) may indeed be our future ‘best friends’.\u00a0 In addition, I’m going to take another look at Space Solar Power (though I’m\u00a0very dubious<\/a> that this can work on a commercial scale) and finally\u00a0see if there is any possibility that a Space Elevator can be\u00a0made economically viable by taking the majority of the commercial satellite launch market.<\/p>\n

I invite comment and\u00a0(reasoned) suggestions – it’s time to get serious guys…<\/p>\n

And, on a final note, as I AM the Space Elevator Blogger, I’ll be reporting from the conference as often as I can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I leave this evening to fly to Luxembourg.\u00a0 There I will attend the\u00a0EuroSpaceward Conference on “Space Elevator, CNT Tether Design & Lunar Industrialization Challenges“.\u00a0 I’ll also be\u00a0giving a presentation entitled: Space Elevator Consortium: stimulation and alignment of SE research activities. Saying all of that is quite a mouthful… I’m still polishing my presentation (sorry Markus)\u00a0but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-isec","category-news-announcements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}