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Space Elevator Consortium: stimulation and alignment of SE research activities

Space Elevator Consortium: stimulation and alignment of SE research activities. By Ted Semon President – ISEC Author – Space Elevator Blog December 5, 2009. Brief History. Idea of Space Elevator as a tensile structure has been around since 1960

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Space Elevator Consortium: stimulation and alignment of SE research activities

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  1. Space Elevator Consortium: stimulation and alignment of SE research activities By Ted Semon President – ISEC Author – Space Elevator Blog December 5, 2009

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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)

  5. 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

  6. Brief History (5) • Advantages of a Space Elevator are clear: • Scalable • Less expensive payload costs • Safer • No high-g forces • No ‘shake, rattle & roll’

  7. 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?

  8. 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

  9. Why not… (2) • It still isn’t possible to build one – the long/strong carbon nanotubes don’t yet exist

  10. 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

  11. 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

  12. 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

  13. 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…

  14. 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

  15. 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

  16. 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

  17. 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)

  18. 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

  19. 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)

  20. Status (7) • Put ourselves on the radar screen of national and international space-related treaty-making organizations No work being done on this yet

  21. 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

  22. 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

  23. Biggest needs… • More ISEC Members • We need membership dues to sponsor academic research • Agreement on “Topic of the Year” • ISEC Librarian / Web Researcher

  24. The International Space Elevator Consortium http://www.isec.info

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