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Welcome to the July
2019 Edition of the ISEC Newsletter
Dear Fellow Space Elevator enthusiast,
Last month, the National Space Society held their annual International Space
Development conference in Washington, D. C. The Space Elevator Track at that
convention was three hours and well-represented by ISEC! Pete Swan tells
us more about his experiences, below.
August 16th is a very important date...it's my birthday! And besides that, it's
the first day of our annual conference. Have you purchased tickets, yet? If you
haven't, or just want to know more, head to our website: https://www.isec.org/sec/.
If you don't want to attend the 3-day technical program but would like to learn
more about Space Elevators, in general, consider coming to the Family Science
Fest held on Saturday. There will be a climber competition in the Great Gallery
and two general introductory lectures held in the The Charles Simonyi Space
Gallery, a short walk via overpass, across the street. There, you will sit next
to the actual full-scale mockup of the Space Elevator that was built for the
Johnson Space Center! The details for the Family Science Fest are
here: https://isec.org/family-science-fest-2019-space-elevator-conference.
If you would like to know more about the climber competition, see the article describing it, below.
I know I will be there, and I
hope to see you there!
If you would like to follow us on Twitter, use
this link! Please like us on Facebook and watch more videos on
our YouTube channel. And please visit the
Space Elevator home page for all things regarding ISEC
for the latest information.
Thank you for your continued support of the International Space Elevator
Consortium!
Sandee Schaeffer
Newsletter Editor
President's
Corner
2019 - A Breakout Year
After
a delightful and exciting time at the NSS International Space Development
Conference in Washington DC, I am even more convinced than ever that this year
is our "Breakout Year" for space elevators. We have grown significantly since the release
of Dr. Edwards NAIC's Phase Two study which stated that the space elevator
could be built, except they had to wait for the material to develop (in their
summaries it was carbon-nanotubes). The
world has progressed over 17 years and we a new the conclusion:
The Space Elevator is
Closer than you Think.
There
are two factors that lead to this conclusion:
The
first is that the material for space elevator tethers has been discovered and
is in the laboratory now. Single Crystal
Graphene has been developed towards a continuous growth production concept
(grow a single molecule very long - hundreds of meters) (currently at 0.5 x 0.1
meter single molecule one atom thick in laboratories). Adrian Nixon projected that future of very
long molecules during his talk at our recent ISEC Webinar. The material is going to be available in the required
strength and length for space elevators.
The
second is that we (ISEC with the other organizations such as IAA, Obayashi
Corporation, and JSEA) have conducted engineering studies and testing showing
great progress across the engineering design segments of a space elevator. The following year long (IAAs and Obayashi
were multi-year) studies have lead to the conclusion that the space elevator is
ready to start testing the technologies needed inside each of its major
segments and regions.
· IAA
(2014 - Space Elevator Feasibility & 2019 - Road to Space Elevator Era)
· Obayashi
(2014 - Space Elevator Design and follow-up analysis/papers)
· ISEC
(2010 - Space Elevator & Space Debris, 2012 - SE Concept of Operations,
2013 - Tether Climbers, 2014 - Architecture & Roadmaps, 2015 - SE Earth
Port, Apex Anchor and GEO Node, 2016 - Software SE Simulator, 2017 -
Multi-Stage SE).
These
two factors have combined to lead the Space Elevator Team to start an effort
where we can reach some conclusions and start the efforts necessary to depart
the Technological Feasibility Phase and initiate the Engineering Validation
phase with its required testing. This
major step will lead us towards the destination of Galactic Harbours around the
equator.
Keep
Climbing my Friends,
Pete
2019 International
Space Development Conference
and Space Elevator
Track
by Pete Swan
The
excitement was contagious at this year's ISDC.
Statements such as the following were made by virtually all of the
leadership attendees (government, international and commercial):
-
"It's
time to go back to the Moon, but this time to stay." Jeff Bezos (May 2019)
-
"This
time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprints -- we will
establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars, and perhaps someday
worlds beyond." President Trump
(Dec 2017)
The
sessions ranged from our Space Elevator Track to many others such as:
· The
Moon
· NASA
Innovative Advanced Concepts, Space Settlements
· Mankind's
Future on Mars
· Space
Transportation
· Space
Business
· Space
Solar Power
In
addition, there were awards and celebrations at each lunch and dinner to ensure
that the tradition of "recognition of achievements" was
continued. Many old friends were being
recognized while new players in the space world were dreaming of their
futures. The amazing environment was
full of innovative thinkers from around the world with a significant attendance
by students representing winners in their "Space Settlement"
competitions (see separate article on the Irish students).
The
contributions by our space elevator experts were significant and will establish
a high standard for next year. They
were: Michael Fitzgerald (Pathway to
Maturity and moderator of panel), Peter Robinson (Tether Material and Tether
Climber), Jerome Pearson (Keynote speaker), Peter Swan (Track Chair), James
Torla (Interplanetary Flight), Panel Members (Fitzgerald, Dave Dressler, Jerome
Pearson and Souvik Mukherjee).
The
beauty of this conference is that there are only "Big Thinkers"
attending. The ideas for the future are
amazing and many attendees were excited about the space elevator's future. One of the major conclusions from our space
elevator track surfaced from the suggestions, questions and persistence of the
audience to recognize the space elevator as an environmentally friendly method
to access space. The topic was discussed
multiple times as thoughts matured and moved towards a conclusion that has been
brought back by the ISEC leadership and will be developed further. The basic concept is that the space elevator
is "green" and will enable the Earth's environment to become
"greener." This concept will
be a mini-workshop during the ISEC Space Elevator Conference in Seattle in
mid-August.
All-in-all, the energy,
effort, and resources to support ISEC's leadership within the Space Elevator
Track have resulted in positive feedback and enthusiastic support from the
attendees of this year's ISDC.
ISDC
Panel 8 June 2019:
Space Elevator Mission
Interplanetary Support Through Collaboration by Many
This
lively panel concluded the three-hour space elevator track at the ISDC. the mission of the panel was to summarize the
last few talks during the afternoon and stimulate discussions with questions
from the audience. They succeeded with
many of the questions demanding follow-up research to be discussed at the 2019
ISEC Space Elevator Conference (16-19 Aug Seattle).
The members of
the panel were: Moderator: Michael Fitzgerald, Members (L to R) Souvik Mukherjee,
Jerome Pearson, and Dave Dressler
Why are space elevators
required in the future?
A
view from a Teenager.
by Souvik Mukherjee
Our
world is growing everyday with increasing population the demand for resources
too is increasing at an exponential rate, simply speaking our planets resources
will not be sufficient to help us sustain in future. Maybe non-renewable
sources of can help us in the fields of energy but what will we do for land
(required for living, agriculture, education, etc.), materials for building and
many other things. We need to go beyond the limits of sky to planets, asteroids
different galaxies to meet the next generation’s needs. For those we will need
to increase our rocket launches which will later cause more air pollution and
environmental issues. We need another mode of transport which is Faster,
Cheaper, Safer and Environmentally Friendly and Space Elevator is the
answer.
Example:
City
A has resource “X” which is required by city B very badly but the road
connecting them is a very bad position so it takes a lot of time to transport
the material “X”. Now someone has built an express highway between the cities
due to which the time taken to transport has decreased, the frequency of
shipments moving has increased and many other advantages. In our case Space
Elevator acts as the express highway between planets and other celestial
bodies.
At podium: Souvik
Mukherjee, a 16 year old Indian Student who attended the 2019 ISDC and
participated in the Space Elevator Track Concluding Panel.
Students from IRELAND present their concept of
space settlement within Space Elevator
During the Space
Elevator Track at the ISDC, a team from St.Flannan's College, Ennis, Co. Clare,
Ireland, presented their design for a space settlement. The students won third
prize in the most senior category of the Space Settlement Design contest (Over
2,500 entries in 2019 from all over the world). Their rotating space settlement
for 10,000 people would be 3D printed from lunar and asteroid materials with
fusion reactors powered by He3. Their project also involved the incorporation
of two space elevators, one lunar and one between Phobos and just above the
Martian surface. Their professor was John Conneely.
The students
are (LtoR) Emer Kenny, Elise Pyne, Gavin Guthrie, Eoin Carroll and Jack
Browne).
Robotics
Competition
by Michael Schaeffer
The
Space Elevator is going to change the way we view space travel and extraterrestrial
work in the future. While there is a lot of work being done on the elevator
itself: the cable, the stations, and the economic, political, and legal
ramifications, there is another SE activity that is going on that is exciting
the minds of the scientists and engineers of tomorrow. This is the RoboClimb
competition that is held each year as part of the ISEC Family Science Fest. The
competition showcases the extraordinary talents of individuals and teams to
build fully autonomous robotic tether climbers that are entered into 2
divisions, one of which requires the sole use of LEGOS! The other division is
the “Almost Anything Goes” division, where any creative solution is welcome!
Many of our young engineers are using building kits such as VEX or Tetrix, but
this last year, we also had a 3D printed robot, a laser-cut plywood robot, and
a robot that was nothing more than two circuit boards with completely custom
electronics that clamped onto the ribbon.
The
object is to build a robot that will carry aluminum weights (1/4 lb, 1/2 lb,
and 1 lb) up an approximately 24-foot long ribbon. The weights have magnets on
them which allow them attach to the steel disk at the top of the ribbon. If
they can successfully attach the “satellite” to the magnet at the top of the
ribbon, it is said to have been put into the proper orbit. Robots can then
descend to pick up more satellites and make multiple trips in the time provided
for the competition. Everything is 100% autonomous. Once the robots start,
there is no more interaction permitted, so if the robot makes multiple trips,
there is usually a second robot on the ground that loads the climber with
additional satellites.
The
competitors:
Any
school-aged child or team of children is welcome to participate. Most teams are
two or three members, but we’ve had as many as 9 or 10 on occasion. The ages
range from 6 and 7 years of age all the way through high school.
The
Divisions:
· LEGO-Only—Teams
must build their robots entirely out of LEGOs using only standard LEGO building
techniques (no cutting, gluing, etc.)
· Almost
Anything Goes (Open)—Teams can build their robots with whatever materials, motors,
processors, etc., that they want. It must be battery powered and have all the
processing on the robot. Building systems such as VEX or Tetrix are welcome and
can be combined with other random parts, but competitors are not limited to
using these systems and can create their climbers using whatever materials they
want.
The
prizes: We
give prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in the
two divisions.
The
big prize we give out is the Engineering Award, given to the team (LEGO or
Anything-Goes) that best exhibits a well-engineered robot. Usually, but not
always, that robot ends up scoring well enough to place in the top 3 as well. This
award is more subjective because it is not based on the score achieved. The
award goes to the team which has come up with a new mechanism or novel solution
to solve one of the problems encountered, and sometimes to a team whose robot
works most reliably, or sometimes to a team that has followed engineering
practices the best.
For
more information about this year’s competition please go to: https://isec.org/family-science-fest-2019-space-elevator-conference
Sample
of a climber in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgnCmKi9_Ho
Climbing the ribbon
Depositing payloads
Example of a loader
Reserve your spot for
the 2019 ISEC Space Elevator Conference
The International Space Elevator Consortium
welcomes you to join us for the 2019 Space Elevator Conference to
be held August 16th through August 18th, 2019 at the Museum
of Flight, Seattle, Washington with the Family Science Fest on Saturday,
August 17th.
This year’s conference theme is “Outreach
and Early Experimentation Support." The three-day technical
conference will engage an international audience of scientists, engineers,
educators, managers, entrepreneurs, enthusiasts, and students in discussions of
space elevator development including Technology, Business and Operations, Outreach,
and Legal topics. More details of this year’s technical conference
program will be posted on the conference website (http://isec.org/sec) with registration
open now!
The Family Science Fest portion of the
conference will be held Saturday, August 17th. This event is in tandem with the
technical conference and is included in the Museum of Flight admission price.
The Family Science Fest includes a youth robotics competition, public Space
Elevator 101 and 201 presentations, exhibits from universities, science
organizations, and science clubs, and much more. This is a great event
for the whole family while you explore the Museum of Flight.
Many thanks to our annual “GEO” level sponsor, the Museum
of Flight, for their generous ongoing support for this conference.
David Horn
Conference Chair
Upcoming Space Elevator Related Events
International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC)
Space Elevator Conference (SEC)
August 16-18, 2019
Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA, USA
https://www.isec.org/sec/
International Astronautic Congress
October 21-25, 2019
Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington D. C., USA
https://www.iac2019.org/
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