Welcome to the

April 2020 Edition

of the ISEC Newsletter

In this Issue:

Editor’s Note

President’s Corner

Architectural Note

Interplanetary Mission Support

Webinar Announcement

Assured Survivability Position Paper

History Corner

European Space Elevator Challenge

Dear Fellow Space Elevator Enthusiast,

I was hoping to have an editorial piece that didn’t mention the Coronavirus, but alas, it is forefront in even Space Elevator news at this time. I am sad to announce that the International Space Development Conference (ISDC) that was to be held in May has been cancelled, meaning, no Space Elevator track for our members who were planning to speak and/or attend!

As of the writing of this newsletter, the British Interplanetary Society is still planning to hold the New Strong Materials for Space Applications seminar in July. Keep checking the link in the Upcoming Events section below for the most current information on this event! There is still time to submit an abstract!

We hope you and yours are all staying well! We look forward to your reading the next newsletter, but in the meantime, you can check out our Facebook site, our Twitter feed, check in on our website for updates, and now, look for pictures, old and new, on our updated Flickr page!

Sandee Schaeffer

Newsletter Editor

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President's Corner

by Pete Swan

Keep Dreaming

As we hunker down in our self-isolation around the world, please keep dreaming about the future we can create. This pandemic is terrible and it (hopefully) will be temporary. We must all remember that as we have started something, we must follow through with energy and passion. Recently a friend of mine, Bert Malloy, who has been to our Seattle conferences and supports space elevators across schools and at the International Space Development Conferences, sent me an email to remind me we are making progress. He is referencing some past correspondence and the projection of the first space elevator going operational:

It is just that ISEC has now made that first step seem almost inevitable, (Wow!!), so, it is hard not to dream about just how transformative this will actually be!!

ISEC has made progress, established some conclusions, and developed an action plan to actually build that first space elevator. Our ten study reports and our Chief Architect's notes combined with the monthly newsletter have provided tremendous insight into the developmental phase we are completing. The following figure shows where ISEC believes we are in the Space Elevator Level of Maturity.

In addition, with the realization that we are making tremendous progress, we are ready to reach out to the larger space community and become a significant part of our migration off-planet. The current studies will move us into a position to be included in the discussions at the highest levels within government and industry.

• Environmental Benefits from Space Elevators (Clean liftoffs and environmentally beneficial mission enabling)

• Interplanetary Mission Support (Fast Transit, Daily launches to Mars, massive movement of cargo - safely, environmentally friendly, and inexpensively)

Therefore, we need to keep charging and dreaming about the "can be" and "what should be" when the departure from Earth includes complementary infrastructures such as rockets and space elevators. Our Space Elevator community has always believed in the concept and now has come to believe that it is doable in the near future. The single crystal graphene tether material, the development of a Galactic Harbour concept, the recognition that space debris is not a showstopper, and our current research have led us to a "good" position in developmental engineering.

I have always said: Think Big! Act Aggressively! and Work with Others...

While Daniel Burnham [Wikiquote] has said (and I endorse):

Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized.

Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency.

Keep Climbing!

Pete

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Architecture Note #31

by Michael A. Fitzgerald

Senior Exec VP and Co-Founder

Galactic Harbour Associates, Inc

Space Elevator Transportation & Enterprise Systems

Space Elevator Architecture

Space Elevator Self Awareness

An Architecture Adjunct

The Galactic Harbour will have lots of pieces. Some will be part of the Architecture’s Space Elevator Systems, some will be the cargo on its way, and some of the pieces will be neither.

Personal Prolog

This is an Architecture Note. It is the opinion of the Chief Architect. It represents an effort to document ongoing science and engineering discussions. It is one of many to be published over time. Most importantly, it is a sincere effort to be the diary, or the chronicle, of the multitude of our technical considerations as we progress; along the pathway developing the Space Elevator.

Michael A. Fitzgerald

The Galactic Harbour has lots of pieces

I live about a mile from the western portion of the Port of Los Angeles. It is often called the Port of LA/Long Beach, and together they form one of the biggest port complexes in the world. On occasion, I drive over to Long Beach; about 6 or 7 miles east. As I go, I pass by tens of thousands of shipping containers, thousands of employees, hundreds of vehicles, dozens of flatbed train cars, and probably a lot more stuff I don’t see.

The cargo, the contents of those containers, is destined for all sorts of places, places as far away as Omaha and St. Louis. Most products must move efficiently; retaining their value; e. g., the fresh blueberries I had with my yogurt this morning came through the port from Chile. Beyond all that, various law enforcement entities see the huge port complex within their jurisdiction.

The port is quite a place and is covered by a range of sensor systems helping to manage the transportation activity and law enforcement efforts. The Galactic Harbour needs to exceed that surveillance chore. All the objects in the Galactic Harbour will be watched by sensors orbiting by. All will be “tagged” with radio frequency identification chips (RFID) and will be able to signal a response to a query. The two-way signal content will likely be encrypted; location and ownership will be checked and rechecked. The entire population of all those pieces within the Galactic Harbour will be under positive control.

Excess population pieces will be tracked down, a threat will be assessed, and the pieces will be snared or eliminated, as needed. (This was discussed broadly in Architecture Note #25 -- Debris Mitigation).

Awareness and Surveillance within the Supply Chain

The Galactic Harbour’s overall self-awareness capability must certify that every one of its components is operating safely and effectively in the space environment and executing at the requisite performance level. It is also necessary that dangerous and nefarious incidents are deterred; indeed prevented. To accomplish that objective, a “reach back awareness” program is mandatory, reaching back to manufacturers. Client cargo items must be produced, packaged, and installed aboard the Climber with full surety that Elevator operations will proceed without interruption. Our concept baseline view is that 14 Climbers are in route somewhere, and none of the 14 cargo payloads can cause interruption of the flow. The contents of all Climbers are actively monitored; with the monitor data provided to the Operations Center aboard the Earth Port Floating Operations Platform (FOP.) Each of the 14 Climbers will have a cargo pilot/cargo manager charged with maintaining positive awareness; ensuring the cargo gets to its destination safely and on time.

The Supply Chain source items arrive at the Access City for primary certification; then organized and sent to the Earth Port FOP

Items arrive from the manufactures at the Access City and are certified for travel and assigned to a soon departing Climber. Access City efforts include acceptance procedures to ensure that the Galactic Harbour is receiving material from certified sources. Two cargo types are evident. Material designated for use within the Space Elevator Transportation System (e.g. Elevator spare parts and consumables), and Client Cargo. Extensive storage is not available in the regions stated above. Thus, the cargo items are part of a responsive “in-time” service/delivery structure. Losing an item or obstructing the flow will be abhorred!

The Earth Port certifies receipt of each cargo item

The Earth Port’s Floating Operations Platform (FOP) is the entry point to the Galactic Harbor. More than simple transshipment, the FOP arranges the cargo properly for insertion into the Climber, probably on a pallet of some sort. The pallet secures cargo from possible shock, movement, or environmental stress and also attaches the needed monitoring devices. Information from each climber will be transmitted (perhaps even down the Tether) to the Primary and Backup Operations Centers.

Surveillance of the Climber

Surveillance of the Climber will be at the core of the Galactic Harbour’s Self Awareness activity. In addition to the information flowing from the internals of the Climber, surveillance systems will be orbiting by--collecting location “truth” of the Climber’s progress up the Tether. Imagine each Climber having passive and active cognition techniques; like an encoded license plate and an encrypted signal/response system. It is also expected that the Climber will scan the Tether for wear and tear and report that to Operations.

Surveillance of the Tether

Sustaining the Tether is kind of important. However good as it may be, it will not be invincible. We certainly hope for gradual operations performance variance vice a catastrophic failure. (Once again, review Architecture Note #25.) I expect our Tether will have some stress revealing adornment, like a purple badge, that will record the stress it senses as the Climber approaches and reads it out to the Climber going by. Perhaps the badge could be interrogated by the signals collection sensors orbiting near.

Surveillance of Un-Identified Objects

Much of the GEO Region will operate on or near the busy highway we call the geosynchronous belt. In addition, those close asteroid approaches we have been reading about makes one wonder. I assume that nearly all of this un-identified object (UIO) traffic will be within the responsibility of the Space Force by then. But, to some degree or another, the Galactic Harbour will encounter UIO’s; if only for a short time; minutes to hours. In the midst of that hesitancy, a specific, practiced action protocol will be needed. An action set that--for the moment--is “to be determined.”

In closing,

Galactic Harbour Self Awareness & Situational Awareness Adjunct. That is quite a mouthful. We will get help, that is what we mean by Architecture Adjuncts. Other systems, then operational, will help us.

I have talked about two Architecture Adjuncts: Debris Mitigation and Self Awareness & Situational Awareness. I will talk about the third one soon--“Client Services”. Keep those cards and letters coming.

Fitzer

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ISEC 2020 study status report

by Pete Swan

Interplanetary Mission Support Study

As we see it today, 2020 will be an inflection point for both human movement off planet and the realization that space elevators will enable this migration. A complementary infrastructure of rockets and space elevators only strengthens this migration. Our study report will summarize a new direction for transportation infrastructure concepts for movement off-planet. (The inflection point might now be in 2021 with a year off to recover from the virus around the world - everyone is affected.)

Bottom Line: With momentum to move off-planet, the need for space elevators to support this becomes obvious. We are moving from missions justifying Space Elevators only by "low cost" to justifying Interplanetary and new missions around the Earth that are ENABLED by Galactic Harbours.

As humanity expands off Earth, the need for support increases exponentially. The mass per day required to be delivered to the Moon, Mars and other destinations will stress out the current rocket-based approach -- something revolutionary is required. Space Elevators allow the growth of humans off-planet to accelerate with three major improvements:

Massive movement of mission support equipment
A tremendous opening up of launch windows
Shorter travel times.

Mars was the focus of a recent Arizona State University (ASU) research study [1], the results show the delivery time for supplies from Earth can be shortened using Space Elevators. In addition, the concept of one launch window every two years towards Mars is collapsed to multiple launches each week. The essence of this change is the tripling of kinetic energy at the Earth's sphere of influence (SOI) [compared to rockets entering the Hohmann transfer ellipse]. The resultant increase in energy is enabled by release from a 100,000 km altitude Apex Anchor rotating with the Earth. These potential and kinetic energies result in a hyperbolic orbit departing from Earth. This ASU study was aimed at determining "time of flight" from Earth to Mars when departure angles and energy at the edge of the SOI reflects the strengths of having Space Elevators at the Earth's equator. This next ISEC Study Report will expand upon the possibility of daily departures to Mars with tremendous energy while it also addresses the opportunities available for massive logistics support. This report will focus upon three Apex Anchor characteristic strengths not studied before. They are:

Fast Transit to destination (Mars in as few as 76 days). ASU's research into release from an Apex Anchor with the concept of a Lambert Problem solution shows remarkable transit times periodically during the 26-month orbital relationship between Earth and Mars.
Massive liftoff capability (14 metric tons [MT] of payload per day to start). Space Elevators start out with huge throughput capacity with daily liftoffs (5,110 MT per year). In addition, ISEC will project into the future showing a remarkable growth as the tether material and infrastructures mature. The Initial Operational Capability of 14 MT, of payload per day per space elevator, increases with the Full Operational Capability reaching 79 MTs.
Daily departures available (no waiting for 26-month Mars Launch Windows). The ability to launch every day towards Mars is a revolutionary concept vs. the dreaded 26-month launch window restrictions currently in place. Transit times for cargo can vary over the repeating planetary dance; but they can be started towards Mars each day - simplifying mission support concepts.

To address these three strengths within the study, the team assessed many items. The study report discusses significant findings in each of the following topics:

Change of Vision for Interplanetary Movement when delivery of mass is inexpensive, timely and supportive.
Movement off-planet will require complementary infrastructures of both rockets and Galactic Harbours - each with their own strengths and short-falls.

Discussions are required in the near future concerning mission needs in the sense of mass to destinations. This discussion will start the analysis of "how much carrying capability" is required by each supportive infrastructure, when, to where, and their resultant priorities.

I wanted everyone to be on-board for this enhancement of space elevator roles. Humanity is moving off-planet and Space Elevators will enable a robust movement of infrastructure and cargo. The study we are writing will strengthen our position that Space Elevators enables the migration while being a complementary infrastructure to rockets. Ideas and discussions are welcome - especially as all of us are hunkered down at home with time on our hands.

Pete

[1] Torla, James and Matthew Peet, " OPTIMIZATION OF LOW FUEL AND TIME-CRITICAL INTERPLANETARY TRANSFERS USING SPACE ELEVATOR APEX ANCHOR RELEASE: MARS, JUPITER AND SATURN," International Astronautics Congress (IAC-18-D4.3.4), Washington D.C., 2019.

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Webinar Announcement:

Today’s Space Elevator: Concept, Status,

and Interplanetary Mission Support

Presented by Peter Swan, Ph.D.

President of International Space Elevator Consortium

Webinar Date: 30 April 2020

4:00PM - 5:00 PM ET / 1:00PM - 2:00PM PT

The modern-day Space Elevator has matured from Dr. Edwards' concept to a robust design incorporating Galactic Harbours and new enterprises. Last year, the Space Elevator developed rapidly and significantly. Join Peter Swan PhD, President of International Space Elevator Consortium, in exploring the changes that made 2019 a "break-out" year.

Interplanetary Missions can also be supported by the Space Elevator. Learn about the three infrastructure activities that are revolutionary, efficient and will further Humanity’s movement off planet.

In this session you will learn about:

• The Galactic Harbour

• Successful tether material

• Positive assessment of each technology within each system segment

• Space Elevator advocacy across the world

• Massive payload capabilities

• The Mars - Space Elevator Connection

Use this link to register: https://bit.ly/ISEC_2004. You will receive an email that contains login and other pertinent information. If you can’t join us live, still register we are recording the session. We will send all registrants instructions on how to access the recording.

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ISEC 2020 Study Report:

Today's Space Elevator Assured Survivability Approach for Space Debris

The International Space Elevator Consortium's (ISEC) position has been well documented and discussed. The space elevator activities about space debris were initiated in the 2010 ISEC Study Report, "Space Elevator Survivability, Space Debris Mitigation" after a full year of analyses by space debris and space systems experts. Since then, there have been events that have increased the growth of space debris. This 2020 report has taken a look at the situation and extrapolated across the arena to arrive at some preliminary results. The numbers were calculated for the present (2019 tracked debris data), compared to the past (2010 data), and the future (2030 estimates with projections of new satellite constellations). The approach, as discussed in the 2010 space debris report, is one where the volume of space around the Earth is shown to have a density of debris related to altitude zones. With discussions and calculations across three decades, the conclusion stays the same: for time periods - 2010, 2019 and 2030.

"Space debris mitigation is an engineering problem with definable quantities such as density of debris and lengths/widths of targets. With proper knowledge and good operational procedures, ... space debris is not a show stopper by any means. However, mitigation approaches must be accepted and implemented robustly."

Get It Now! This study report can be downloaded from www.isec.org - or buy it on www.lulu.com. 

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History Corner

This is the first part of two parts due to length

Russian Influence on the Space Elevator - a Timeline

The ISEC History Corner this month looks at Russian influence and involvement with space elevators. The story begins just prior to the turn of the 19th century with a well-known Russian scientist named Konstantin Tsiolkovsky who is celebrated as one of the fathers of rocketry. Tsiolkovsky was the first person to provide a description of an early forerunner to a space elevator The story continues with a much more detailed description of a space elevator by another Russian, Yuri Artsutanov, in 1960 in his work "To the Cosmos by Electric Train". Artsutanov is today considered as the co-inventor of the space elevator (along with the American Jerome Pearson, whose efforts were finally published in 1975. Next month, the story concludes with some other Russian contributions - many of which are simply news items proudly claiming the space elevator as being a Russian invention, rather than offering any substantial new work.

Tsiolkovsky and his Celestial Castle

Fascinated by the study of gravity and interested in conceptualizing avenues by which to gain access to space, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky is perhaps most famously associated with the Ideal Rocket Equation, sometimes referred to as the Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation, which provides the formula to account for the change in a rocket’s velocity as its mass continues to reduce while expending fuel during flight. Among his numerous written works on space exploration and travel, it is within the pages of one particular collection of earlier essays from 1895, "Dreams of Earth and Sky", that can be found what many regard to be the earliest abstract imagining of a space elevator. (Although Tsiolkovsky’s writings were in Russian, a translation into English of “Dreams of Earth and Sky”, together with some of his other works, appears in the fascinating book "Call of the Cosmos", published in 1960.)

In this essay, Tsiolkovsky speculated on a variety of methods as to how the pull of gravity could be diminished, shifted, or even reversed entirely given the application of a sufficient amount of external force. In explaining his ideas, he invited readers to imagine entering into a clay pot being spun on a potter’s wheel, and how one would be able to stand on the inner walls as the pot was being spun due to the centripetal force. He then calculated the centripetal force that would be required for one to be free of Earth’s gravitational influence entirely - and he conceived of some rather unconventional means. He suggested that if one were to be riding a train that ran full circle around the equator at a speed of 30,000 kilometers per hour (kph), the pull of gravity would be entirely reversed, and any passengers on board would become secured to the ceiling. Continuing this line of thought, Tsiolkovsky contemplated the change in conditions if one were not trying to defeat gravity on the surface of the planet, where it is at its strongest, but rather using centripetal force at a point where gravity is significantly diminished as it is in space.

In 1895, inspired by the newly-constructed Eiffel Tower in Paris, Tsiolkovsky considered a tower reaching all the way up into space. He thought of putting a ‘celestial castle’ at the end of a spindle shaped cable, with the ‘castle’ orbiting the Earth in a geosynchronous orbit. Tsiolkovsky's tower would be able to launch objects into orbit without a rocket and since objects would attain orbital velocity as they rode up the cable, once released at the tower's top they would also have the orbital velocity necessary to remain in geosynchronous orbit. However, building from the ground up for the height required proved to be an impossible task - there was no material in existence at the time with enough compressive strength to support its own weight under such conditions.

Though the system he described sounds familiar to what is now recognized as a space elevator, Tsiolkovsky was never acknowledged as the inventor per se because he never bothered to calculate some rather significant factors pertinent to the elevator’s successful assembly and operation. For example, factors such as the material used for construction, how the line would need to double in width at certain intervals in order to support itself, how one would be transported to the top of the tower, or the need for a counterweight that extended much further than his castle at geostationary orbit to keep the entire system taut. Also devoid of any extensive numerical treatment, his ideas have often been chalked up to the musings of a highly imaginative mind, or what many refer to as a ‘thought experiment’.

Artsutanov and his Cosmic Railway

Some six decades after Tsiolkovsky, a young engineering student in Leningrad named Yuri N. Artsutanov, came up with a more feasible scheme for building a space tower by using a geosynchronous satellite as the base from which to construct it. By employing a counterweight, a cable would be lowered from geosynchronous orbit to the surface of the Earth while the counterweight was extended from the satellite away from Earth, keeping the center of gravity of the cable motionless relative to Earth. Artsutanov, unaware at the time of Tsiolkovsky’s castle 65 years prior, independently conceived of what he called a ‘cosmic railway,’ the catalyst for which was an advancement in materials science that had recently been made in the United States. In 1957, he learned from a fellow graduate that a super-strong material (likely tiny graphite whiskers) had been invented whose strength-to-weight ratio could theoretically allow for the construction of a cable up to 400km in length without collapsing under its own weight. Artsutanov then took the idea of something even stronger; a fictitious super-material that could be used to extend a cable to an infinite length into the cosmos. That same material, as he imagined it, would serve as the rail in his cosmic railway. Artsutanov’s idea eventually made its way into print, being later published in the daily Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda on 31 July 1960. His piece, “To the Cosmos by Electric Train”, went into extensive detail regarding what is thought to be yet another earlier Russian rendition of a space elevator.

Unlike Tsiolkovsky, Artsutanov considered rockets too dangerous, with a too lengthy preparation process prior to each individual launch, and thus an inefficient means of getting off the Earth. He began to work with the previously established notion of ‘celestial moorings’, or orbital spaceports, that would allow for the docking and embarkation of large interplanetary vessels. These way stations would also employ smaller shuttles to ferry people to and from the planetary bodies they orbited. Artsutanov’s permutation of this concept envisioned that instead of using smaller craft to transport people up from the ground, travellers would use railways that would extend into the sky, tying the ground terminals on the surface directly to their orbital counterparts above.

In many ways Artsutanov’s system was similar to that of Tsiolkovsky’s in that the space elevator would have to be placed on the Earth’s equator in order to utilize the centripetal force generated by the rotation of the planet. In explaining his concept, he drew a metaphor between a space station revolving around the planet and a stone being swung around on the end of a string. He explained that just as the centripetal force allowed the string to remain taut, so would the same be true for his cosmic railway. In some of the finer details however, his system differed from Tsiolkovsky's in that instead of a station placed at precisely the geostationary point at 36,000km, it would instead be located 50-60,000km out. His ‘end of the line’ as he called it, is from where he imagined interplanetary spaceships could depart on cosmic ventures into the solar system and beyond.

Artsutanov's model also employed the spaceport to serve a dual purpose in that it would simultaneously function as the counterweight for the entire system, helping to keep the line taut, thereby preventing its collapse. Artsutanov made it clear that the counterweight was a necessary element in the system’s overall design, and even today the need for a counterweight is still considered to be a requisite in the most up-to-date models of space elevators - though current estimates place the distance as 100,000km. Artsutanov also made it clear that construction would need to begin from a satellite placed at the geostationary point, where both the line being dropped to Earth and the one extending into space would need to be extruded simultaneously. This would be done in order to ensure that as the line reaching towards the surface became heavier with the increasing gravitational pull of the planet, the system could be kept in balance with the weight of the line reaching into space, which through the use of centrifugal force would negate the pull of the Earth. Artsutanov also drew attention to the need for the line connecting the spaceport to the Earth to exponentially increase in width as it was produced and slowly threaded towards the surface. With the thickest part of the line at the geosynchronous spaceport, this would ensure that it would not snap, as there would be an enormous strain placed upon it by the rotating station once anchored to the planet below. Those who would later come to work on the space elevator would reaffirm this stipulation in even finer detail.

But even for all of Artsutanov’s unconventional concepts on constructing this revolutionary system, they were still predicated on a material that existed only in his mind. In 1960, there was no known physical substance whose strength-to-weight ratio could support such a gargantuan structure. Even today this still remains the elevator’s primary obstacle in becoming realized (though the discovery of carbon nanotubes in 1991 have led to the conviction that these have the necessary characteristics for a space elevator), which leads many to argue that an elevator could be possible on the Moon, where the environmental conditions are far less demanding. In concluding “To the Cosmos by Electric Train”, Artsutanov made mention of this and stated that if two elevators, one on the Earth and the other on the Moon, operated in tandem, the distance between the two bodies from surface to surface could be negotiated almost entirely without the use of fuel.

Though his ideas were lacking in any kind of mathematical treatment, Artsutanov's thought processes and

elaborate engineering approach included enough conceptual detail to have him recognized as one of the space elevator’s founding fathers. Despite this designation however, his piece was not received by a wide enough audience to gain any real footing in the scientific community, and for that reason, the space elevator and Artsutanov's role in it remained in the shadows for quite some years.

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Space Elevator Challenge

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Why Space Elevators?

by David Dotson

I first stumbled upon the concept of a space elevator while reading Popular Mechanics in 2004.

I was 14 years old, and as a teenager drawn to science and engineering, I quickly became obsessed with the idea.

All through high school, it was the subject that interested me the most, and drove my interest in physics.

During my college and PhD years I had other concerns, essentially forgetting the topic.

But last year the topic came up in conversation, and my mind traversed neural pathways that hadn't seen action in a decade.

At 30, I became excited again, and realized I wanted to make the space elevator megaproject *the* driver of my long-term efforts.

But why?

I sincerely believe that humanity must become a space-faring civilization, and space elevators provide an *infrastructure* for moving hardware out of Earth's gravity well at high throughput.

Rockets will always be an important mode of transport, but space elevators will enable an economic foothold in space that rockets simply cannot deliver.

We can and *must* make space elevators work to address what amounts to a bottleneck in off-planet activity.

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After a few years of dormancy, ISEC will again be posting photographs on our Flickr account, but we need your help…

If you’re not familiar with Flickr, it’s a photo-sharing site originally created by Yahoo. It was sold in 2018 to “Smugmug” but retained all the original features. The ISEC account was created in 2012 and until recently, only contained photos up to 2015. We are working to bring this archive up to date, so if you like to contribute any of your photos, please send any suitable photographs to isecdotorg@isec.org. These should be of reasonable quality (at least 1Mb) showing people or “things” related to Space Elevators. This means people at conferences or other events, climber competition activities, or images of actual prototype devices or materials. This does NOT include presentation material, schematics or artwork. Please supply photo date & location (if not embedded) plus content details.

If you already have a Flickr account then please follow us: we are “ISECdotORG”. If you don’t have an account, try it! Here’s a link to view our site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/isecdotorg/albums.

We will publish an update in a later newsletter, but in the meantime here’s a screenshot of the current site showing our latest “albums.”

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International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC)

Announces a Summer Internship Program

Deadline -- 30 April 2020

ISEC will have an internship program this summer to stimulate research inside the space community with the purpose of improving the Body of Knowledge on space elevators. The expectation is that the intern would work from home, putting in approximately 10 hours a week researching various components of the space elevator while working with an ISEC mentor. The selection will be competitive with the top several gaining internships. The details are as follows:

•Process: Apply, be connected with the appropriate ISEC mentor, select topic of interest, conduct individual research, confer with mentor every two weeks, interview local space professional, summarize research, present to mentor/and-or at the ISEC Conference.

•Who: This program is open to all undergraduate students. The program is best suited to Freshman and Sophomores working in a scientific or engineering field, however students from all areas of study are encouraged to apply as ISEC works on all aspects of the Space Elevator challenge from technical engineering problems to questions of Space law and economics. We will be accepting several interns for Summer 2020.

•Where: the intern will conduct Research remotely with meetings by Skype or equivalent. The internships final meeting will either be over Skype or at the ISEC Conference.

•What: Interns will be researching or assisting with ongoing research of one area of Space Elevator development. Areas of research include Space Elevator History, Materials Applications for Space Elevator tethers, Earth Port infrastructure, and more. Interns will report progress regularly to their mentor and produce a summary of their research, as per agreement between intern and mentor. They will present this research in person, by Skype or through a video. A list of research papers is available on website: www.isec.org

•Benefit: In addition to the unique opportunity to work with leading Space Elevator researchers each intern will be awarded a $500 grant, an ISEC certificate of completion, and a letter of recommendation.

Key Dates:

Application due: April 30th.

Internship period: June 15th - August 15th.

To Apply: Please submit your application and any questions to inbox@isec.org by April 30, 2020.

Your application should include your name, school, year, major [and interests], and a short summary of your interest in ISEC and why you would like to have a career in the space arena (no more than 200 words).

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Upcoming Events

Today’s Space Elevator: Concept, Status,

and Interplanetary Mission Support Webinar

Sponsored by International Space Elevator Consortium

https://bit.ly/ISEC_2004

Date: 30 April 2020

4:00PM - 5:00 PM ET / 1:00PM - 2:00PM PT

International Space Development Conference (ISDC)

****CANCELLED****