Space Elevator: July 2006

As many of you have noticed I have not been keeping the web site as up to date as it should be. Well that's all about to change. The web site will be undergoing a redesign in the coming weeks and we will be announcing two exceptional contributing editors who will be joining the team to keep this web site up to date and provide usefull information and resources so that one day a space elevator can become a reality. Stay tuned.

Marc Boucher

This was announced about a month ago but it's well worth mentioning here. The Spaceward Foundation has once again teamed with NASA for the Mars Robotic Construction Challenge. This is really exciting news as it adds another piece to the exploration to do puzzle.

Here's some of the reasoning behind this challenge. You can read the rest and the rules on their web site.

Why

Suppose we want to build a fuel/oxygen generation plant on Mars, comprised of an ore processor, a reactor, and storage tanks. Or suppose we want to build a human habitat, comprised of several interconnected habitation and support modules...

With today's technology, we already know how to build the basic machinery, and we also already know how to send payloads to the Martian surface... The problem is that we can only send up to a ton or two at a time. (The Spirit and Opportunity packages only weighed about half a ton each), and so have to assemble the structures on the Martian surface - with the human operators still on Earth!