Space Elevator Top Story

Annual Space Elevator Conference Set for August 25-27

The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) is once again holding its annual conference in Seattle and for the first time it will be held at the Museum of Flight. The 3-day conference opens on August 25th and has a theme of Operating and Maintaining a Space Elevator.

Conference events to include:

Obayashi and the Space Elevator - A Story of Hype

When the news broke a couple of days ago on the Yomiuri Online web site that the Obayashi Corporation would be building a Space Elevator by 2050 I was skeptical. Why? Well let's examine the original article. If you use Google's Chrome web browser you have the option of having the article translated. I did that. As well a little history of the company helped.

Obayashi is a huge global construction company and like other Japanese construction companies it projects its business plan with a very long term view. So every now and then they put forward some visionary construction project. It won't get built anytime soon, if ever, but maybe, just maybe someday it will. Unfortunately that's not the case here.

First Issue of the Space Elevator Journal Released

Ted Semon is reporting that the first issue of the Space Elevator Journal is available. It consists of eight peer-reviewed papers. The Journal will be sent out to all past and present members of the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC). It's not available just yet on the ISEC web site but will be soon.

Google X and the Space Elevator

From the New York Times comes a story on Google's X lab where top secret Google projects of the future are being researched. These are blue sky ideas that might some day pan out. One of the ideas being bandied about? The Space Elevator.

Michio Kaku Explains the Space Elevator for the Daily Show (video) Comment

Recently The Daily Show contacted me as they wanted to do a piece on the Space Elevator after the last shuttle program ended. I put them in touch with Brad Edwards and Ben Shelef. The result is the following video with renowned physicist Michio Kaku where he discusses the space elevator and how it could economically lift cargo and humans into space by the end of the century.

2012 Space Elevator Journal Call for Papers

The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) is now accepting submissions for the 2012 Space Elevator Journal. As with the Call for Papers for the Space Elevator Conference, papers on "Strong Tethers" are encouraged while papers on any other subject relevant to a Space Elevator are also encouraged. Details are available on the journal from the ISEC web site.

NASA Strong Tether Competition Set for August 12th

The NASA Strong Tether competition will be held on Friday, August 12th at the annual Space Elevator Conference being held at the Microsoft Conference Centre in Redmond, Washington. As part of its Centennial Challenges program, NASA has put up a $2 Million prize purse for tethers that can meet certain specific strength benchmarks. To this point no one has been able to win this prize. Could this years competition be the year someone wins?

4th Luxembourg Carbon Nanotechnology and Space Elevator Systems Summary Available

The European Spaceward Association has made available a summary report from the recent 4th Luxembourg Carbon Nanotechnology and Space Elevator Systems as well as the book of abstracts.

Call for Papers for the 2011 Space Elevator Conference

The Space Engineering and Science Institute (SESI) has put out its annual call for papers for this years 2011 Space Elevator Conference once again being held at the Microsoft Convention Center in Redmond Washington between August 12th - 14th. Abstracts are due by June 11, 2011.

Application for 2011 Artsutanov and Pearson Prizes Now Open

The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) is now accepting entries for the 2011 Artsutanov and Pearson Prizes. Two prizes will be awarded, $1,500 and $2,500 respectively for the best papers. The deadline for submission is June 30.

Economist: Beam it up

The March 14th issue of the Economist has a good article on bean power technology titled Beam it up, "Energy: Laser beams can deliver energy to machines through thin air. This might be a good way to power drone aircraft or a space elevator." This will no doubt bring more awareness to one aspect of the a future space elevator system.

"THE Pelican, a small, remotely controlled helicopter drone weighing less than a kilogram, is powered by a battery that provides about 20 minutes' flying. And yet, one evening last October, the Pelican took off, rose ten metres and hovered throughout the night. It was brought down in the morning only because the exhibition hall near Seattle, where it was airborne, was about to open for business."

Call for Papers for the 2011 Space Elevator Conference

The theme of the 2011 Space Elevator Conference is: Developing Stronger, Lighter Tethers - "30 MYuri or Bust" and seems appropriate as without advances in tether strength there won't be any material to build a space elevator in the future. So for those interested in contributing to the Space Elevator Conference the call for papers has now gone out.

ISEC Releases its First Position Paper

The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) has released its first position paper titled Space Elevator Survivability Space Debris Mitigation in the form of a 76 page self-published book. Authored by Cathy Swan, Peter Swan and Robert "Skip" Penny the report states unequivocally that space debris will not be a show stopper for the space elevator.

"The International Space Elevator Consortium has placed this position paper as a recognition that the space debris problem is an engineering one and can be mitigated. The question: "Will space debris be a show stopper for space elevators?" is answered emphatically. NO! The mitigation concepts presented change the issue from a perceived problem to an engineering concern; but, by no means is it a significant threat. This pamphlet illustrates how the development office for a future space elevator can attack this problem, predict probabilities of collision, and convert the concern into another manageable engineering problem."