Space Elevator Proponents Begin to Organize

It is evident from the just completed 3rd Annual Space Elevator Conference that the proponents of the Space Elevator concept are organizing themselves into a community that wishes to be taken seriously. And government organizations like NASA are taking them seriously. The conference keynote speaker was John Mankins from NASA, a senior NASA manager. The media as well are taking notice as evident by the many stories published during the conference.

Unfortunately I was not able to attend to the conference but thanks to Blaise Gassend who took notes I was able to get some idea what went on, at least from his perspective. As well the speaker presentations are now online.
One interesting idea to come from the conference is the idea of an X-Prize style competition. A group calling itself the Spaceward Foundation is suggesting a prize competition with a deadline of 2010. Details were available at the conference but unfortunately their web site has no information yet.

And lastly the “Space Exploration Conference” will be held in New Mexico in April 2005 and is being jointly organized by The Space Engineering and Science Institute, National Space Grant Foundation, The Institute for Scientific Research and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The first Biennial Space Elevator Workshop will be held in conjunction with the conference.