Post on 18-Dec-2015
Space Elevator Consortium: stimulation and alignment of SE research activities
By Ted SemonPresident – ISEC
Author – Space Elevator Blog
December 5, 2009
Brief History
Idea of Space Elevator as a tensile structure has been around since 1960
Popularized in 1979 by Arthur C. Clarke’s The Fountains of Paradise
Idea has now hit mainstream science fiction and been on several TV shows
Growing library of books / articles on the topic
Brief History (2)
Who discovered nanotubes remains under debate, but research accelerated after the publication of Sumio Iijima’s paper in 1991
Governments, academic institutions and private enterprise worldwide are engaged in serious nanotube research
Brief History (3)
Rocket technology is still fundamentally the same
It still costs thousands of dollars per pound to send something to LEO
Failure rate of rocket launches is in the neighborhood of 1-3% (van Pelt)
Brief History (4)
Multiple organizations are now wholly or partially devoted to the Space Elevator
Multiple conferences wholly or partially devoted to the Space Elevator are held each year
Space Elevator Games have been ongoing since 2005 – JSEA now also holding their own competition
Brief History (5)
Advantages of a Space Elevator are clear:
Scalable
Less expensive payload costs
Safer
No high-g forces
No ‘shake, rattle & roll’
Given all of this…
Why isn’t everyone demanding that a Space Elevator be built?
Why aren’t more people working on Space Elevator related research?
Why not... (1)
There is no ‘crying need’ for one as far as the public is concerned and there has been no economic case made as far as the ‘decision-makers’ are concerned
Why not… (2)
It still isn’t possible to build one – the long/strong carbon nanotubes don’t yet exist
Why not… (3)
There are many unanswered questions / issues surrounding a Space Elevator – even if/when the long/strong nanotubes become a reality, these issues remain
Space debris mitigation
Tether design, deployment & maintenance
Climber & Base Station design
Other
What can we do about it? (1-2)
Identify the ‘crying need(s)’ that only a Space Elevator can satisfy or that a Space Elevator can best satisfy and ally ourselves with organizations already working towards those goal(s)
Make the economic case where a Space Elevator can do a better job than existing technologies
What can we do about it? (3-5)
Encourage development in power-beaming, strong-tether and climber technologies
Answer the unanswered questions
Build a reference library of Space Elevator related material
What can we do about it? (6-8)
Identify those organizations working towards building a Space Elevator and align our efforts
Put ourselves on the radar screen of national and international space-related treaty-making organizations
Publicize, publicize, publicize…
Status (1)
Identify the ‘crying need(s)’ that only a Space Elevator can satisfy or that a Space Elevator can best satisfy and ally ourselves with organizations already working towards those goal(s)
Moon / Mars colonization
Space-based Solar Power
No work being done on this yet
Status (2)
Make the economic case where a Space Elevator can do a better job than existing technologies
Commercial satellite launches
Space Tourism (perhaps)
No work being done on this yet, but we (ISEC) do have a business analyst on board and hope to start work on this task shortly
Status (3)
Encourage development in power-beaming, strong-tether and climber technologies
Space Elevator Games (hosted by the Spaceward Foundation – money provided by NASA)
JSEA Climber competition
Other robotic / Lego competitions
Status (4)
Answer the unanswered questions
Space Elevator Conferences
ISEC Academic prizes - they will be named after Yuri Artsutanov and Jerome Pearson (hope to start in 2010)
ISEC Journal (yet to be started)
Sponsored research (none going on that I know of except Space Elevator Games)
Status (5)
Build a reference library of Space Elevator related material
We have the Space Elevator Wiki (www.spaceelevatorwiki.com)
It’s a good start, but we need a librarian / web researcher
We should consider asking permission from the conferences to put relevant presentations on the Wiki
Status (6)
Identify those organizations working towards building a Space Elevator and align our efforts
This is why the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) was formed
Spaceward
EuroSpaceward
The Space Elevator Reference
The Space Elevator Blog
The Space Elevator Wiki
Japan Space Elevator Association (we hope)
McGill University (possibly)
Status (7)
Put ourselves on the radar screen of national and international space-related treaty-making organizations
No work being done on this yet
Status (8)
Publicize, publicize, publicize…
The ISEC Newsletter The ISEC Journal (yet to be started) The Space Elevator Games The Space Elevator Reference The Space Elevator Blog The Space Elevator Translation Project EuroSpaceward & JSEA websites
New ideas
Get organizations to agree to identify a “topic of the year” and then devote research time / publications to that topic
Get conferences to agree to allow publication of relevant presentations on the Space Elevator Wiki
“Cross-licensing” of memberships
Biggest needs…
More ISEC Members We need membership dues to sponsor
academic research
Agreement on “Topic of the Year”
ISEC Librarian / Web Researcher
The International Space Elevator Consortium
http://www.isec.info