Bravo to the space-elevator visionaries who are boldly taking tether-engineering theory to new heights!
Recalling
Wayne's vision of hypersonic kites at the interface with Space [Chico
2009]. Perhaps we will someday bleed excess kinetic energy from the
atmosphere to better hurl space colonists on their way, by means of
kites. The geeky fields of tech-kites and space-elevators could merge.
We already have a strong solar-sailing overlap, where the KiteShip OL
was evaluated in the Space role.
On Wednesday, September 2, 2015 11:28 AM, "joefaust333@gmail.com [AirborneWindEnergy]" <AirborneWindEnergy@yahoogroups.com
The official newsletter of the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) Our mission statement: "...ISEC
promotes the development, construction and operation of a space
elevator as a revolutionary and efficient way to space for all
humanity..." |
| | | Dear Friend, Welcome to the August, 2015 edition of the ISEC eNewsletter. The
2015 ISEC Space Elevator Conference has just wrapped up and, by all
accounts, was a smashing success. Engineers, scientists,
researchers and enthusiasts from around the world gathered for the
three-day conference to give presentations, conduct workshops and
brainstorming sessions, compare notes and made contributions which help
us further our understanding of the space elevator.
It
was particularly gratifying to host the group that attended from Japan,
including senior members of the Japan Space Elevator Association (JSEA)
and the Obayashi Corporation, a corporation which has the stated goal
of building an earth-based space elevator by the year 2050.
The
ISEC Board of Directors also held its annual meeting at the conference
and a report from them will be in a forthcoming issue of the
eNewsletter.
If you want to help us make a space elevator happen,JOIN ISEC and
get involved! A space elevator would truly revolutionize life on
earth and open up the solar system and beyond to all of us.
And please don't forget to LIKE US on Facebook, FOLLOW US on Twitter and enjoy the photos and videos that we've posted on Flickr and YouTube - all under our Social Identity of ISECdotORG. Thank you! ISEC |
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|  The President's CornerThis
month I would like to address an on-going discussion on the basic
terminology for our space elevator culture. The International
Academy of Astronautics [organization that conducted SE study resulting
in 300 page study report assessing feasibility of SE's [1]]
is conducting a second study on space elevators and focusing on the
systems engineering aspects. As such, one of the first steps is
to have a common lexicon for all to use in the process. The
suggestions are: - Apex Anchor (roughly 100,000 km altitude)
- Mars Gate (roughly 57,000 km altitude) - release to Mars
- Lunar Gate (roughly 47,000 km altitude) - release to Moon
- GEO Node (roughly 36,000 km altitude) - release to geosynchronous
- LEO Gate (roughly 24,000 km altitude) - elliptical release to LEO
- Lunar Gravity Center (roughly 8,900 km altitude) - Lunar gravity similarity
- Mars Gravity Center (roughly 3,900 km altitude) - Mars gravity similarity
- Marine Node
- Tether Climbers (or just Climbers)
- Tether
- Headquarters and Primary Operations Center
Most
of these terms are familiar to each of you. Please look at them
and send me your comments on the lexicon. We are setting up a
repository of terms to ensure consistency within the community. There is one term we are puzzling over at this time. ISEC has been going with 'Marine Node'. Others have termed their concept of this as a: Terrestrial Node, Earth Node, Earth Port, Earth Anchor.At
the present time we have multiple words representing the tether
terminus on the planet - please jump in and suggest which one we should
use. -- Pete Swan ------------------------------ --------------- |
Space Elevator Conference SummaryThe
2015 ISEC Space Elevator Conference was just completed and, by all
accounts, was a great success. ISEC Director and Conference Chair
David Horn provides a brief summary of the events: We
had a great turnout for the 2015 Space Elevator Conference, August
21-23. Around 60 presenters, attendees, and press from around the
world participated in 3 days of presentations, workshops, and social
events at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, WA. Our keynote
speaker, Ph.D. student Mark Hasse from the University of Cincinnati,
presented the current state of research in high strength CNTs.
His talk illustrated the recent advances in creating CNT threads and
forecast that we might have a 25 MYuri tether in 20 years.
(Picture is Mark Haase along with one of his presentation slides)
------------------------------ ---
For
the second year running, the ISEC Space Elevator Conference hosted the
"Elevator speech competition", a competition where contestants had to
give a short, 30-second pitch extolling the benefits of a space
elevator. Generically, these types of speeches are known as
"elevator speeches" and it's hard to imagine a more perfect name for a
pitch about space elevators. Contest coordinator Peter Robinson
gives a brief summary of the competition:
 The
2015 conference saw the 2nd running of the 'Elevator Speech'
competition. Initial sign-up only had four entrants, but a
further four entered on the day. The final result was very close,
with only a quarter point separating the first and second place winners
: congratulations to Jake Tucker and Nick Regnier for their excellent
presentations.
Thanks go to all the
contestants for the variety of inspiration and humor in their speeches,
all of which stayed within the 30-80 second time limit. Thanks
also must go to the four judges (Mark Haase, Skip Perry, Ruth Richter
and Sandee Schaeffer) for doing a difficult task, and to Rudy Resch for
taking over the complex score calculations at the last minute.
(ISEC President Dr. Peter Swan (right) presents contest winner Jake Tucker with the first prize gift certificate)
------------------------------ -----
As
part of the annual ISEC Space Elevator Conference, there is also a
'Robo Climb" competition where youngsters build battery-powered robotic
climbers and then compete against each other for prizes. These
competitions have been held for several years and are always
well-attended and a lot of fun. Conference Chair David Horn
reports this year's winners: (Almost) Anything Goes
1st: Wasabi Z (910)
2nd: Red Shirts (635)
3rd: Atomic Robotics (120)
LEGO Only
1st: Cody Labs (810)
2nd: Meadow Robotics Club #3 (440)
3rd: Space Invaders (430)
Engineering Award: Cody Labs
Congratulations to all of the contestants!
------------------------------ ---------
More photos of the Conference can be found on our Flickr page. |
 The Research Lab
This
months column is a summary of many of the science and research related
topics that were discussed during the just-finished space elevator
conference.
2015 Conference Research Report
A
number of science-related topics were covered at the August 2015
conference : the following notes cover those directly relevant to the
current ISEC earth space elevator vision.
The
keynote speech by Mark Haase confirmed the promise of carbon nanotubes
(CNT) as the lead material contender, but introduced alternative
materials : boron nitride nanotubes do not quite match the strength of
CNTs, but is far more inert and so less susceptible to oxidation and
other reactions.
Dr. Bryan
Laubscher described his ongoing experimental CNT work, and hinted that
he may be able to reveal his progress in the near future.
Dr.
Dennis Wright and Peter Robinson discussed tether dynamic simulation
and described their tool benchmarking work undertaken in the last year
: test cases run by analysts Jim Dempsey and Steven Patamia identified
two distinct oscillation frequencies of the published tether
configuration and indicated an error in the area taper equation.
This was followed by a simulation workshop, to be reported in more
detail in a later newsletter.
The
Marine Node (now renamed 'Earth Port') workshop will also be reported
later, but identified some interesting new configuration options : for
example, multiple (3+) tethers descending from some high-atmosphere
junction node and connected to multiple platforms could address
security concerns and may allow simpler lateral tether dynamic control
using only reel in/out movement at sea level.
Dr.
John Knapman discussed climber power transmission, describing a
single-cable AC power transmission system that appears worthy of more
extensive study. He also mentioned an acoustic power transmission
system proposed by Keith Lofstrom.
Last
but not least, Yoji Ishikawa presented on the status of the concept
development work in progress at Obayashi Corporation : he described an
elevator concept with a higher lift capacity than the ISEC concept and
included some results of dynamic simulation of various deployment
scenarios. These studies are ongoing, but are indicating a very
substantial thruster fuel requirement during tether deployment from GEO
to Earth. In separate discussions he agreed that Obayashi would
consider involvement in the ISEC dynamic model benchmarking process.
|
ISEC Affiliations National Space Society Update - " The
annual International Space Development Conference (ISDC) is the keynote
event of the National Space Society (NSS), bringing together leading
managers, engineers, scientists, educators, and business people from
civilian, military, commercial, entrepreneurial, and grassroots
advocacy space sectors. ISDC has been held in various locations
throughout North America since 1982, featuring renowned speakers such
as Buzz Aldrin, Eric Anderson, Charles Bolden, Neil deGrasse Tyson,
Peter Diamandis, Lori Garver, Richard Garriott, Bill Nye, Elon Musk,
Seth Shostak, Simon 'Pete' Worden, and many others. ISDC also features
plenary talks, keynote speakers, multi-disciplinary tracks, exhibit
hall, design contests, book signing, and more. |
What is ISEC? The
International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) is the result of a
coming-together of many leading figures and organizations who have
worked long and hard over many years to promote the concept of a Space
Elevator. With organizational members in the United States,
Europe and Japan and individual members from around the world, ISEC's
goal is nothing less than to get a Space Elevator built. Our Mission Statement says it all: "ISEC
promotes the development, construction and operation of a space
elevator as a revolutionary and efficient way to space for all humanity"Each year we adopt a theme which we use to focus our activities for that year. For 2009-2010, our theme was Space Debris Mitigation - Space Elevator Survivability. For 2010-2011 our theme was Research and thought targeted towards the goal of a 30 MYuri tether. For 2011-2012, our theme was Operating and Maintaining a Space Elevator. For 2012-2013, our theme was Tether Climbers and for 2013-2014, our theme is Architecture & Roadmaps. For 2014-2015, ISEC has two themes; The Marine Node and a Materials Review. If you agree that building a Space Elevator should be a priority for all of us and you want to help make this happen, please Join Us! Benefits include eNewsletters (such as this one), the ISEC Journal CLIMB and other items listed on our Join page. Come and join us and help make the future happen! The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) is a registered 501c3 charitable organization
(EIN 80-0302896)
|
Thank you, Corporate Sponsors !The
lifeblood of any organization such as ours is the support we receive
from our members - and we thank them all. We especially want to
thank our Corporate Sponsors who have contributed funds and resources
to ISEC at a higher level. |
| Visit ISEC on the Web Visit our website at www.isec.org.
There you can join and learn more about what is happening in the Space
Elevator community and what is being done to advance the concept of a
Space Elevator. Please consider joining ISEC - we foster research
and sponsor Space Elevator-related causes, but to do so takes
money. Your contributions are crucial to our success. Thank
you! If this newsletter has been forwarded to you, you can also sign up to be on our mailing list so you don't miss a thing! |
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The
International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) is the result of a
coming-together of many leading figures and organizations who have
worked long and hard over many years to promote the concept of a Space
Elevator. With organizational members in the United States,
Europe and Japan and individual members from around the world, ISEC's
goal is nothing less than to get a Space Elevator built.
