Space Elevator Journal

The Right Way to Get to Space

Doors Still Open to Liftport in Millville

Despite launching a lawsuit to collect almost $50K from Liftport, Donald Ayres, the City of Millville's director of economic development, is still looking for ways to get Liftport's nanotube production facility working in New Jersey's Cumberland County.

"We'd love to work with Mr. Laine and keep moving forward," Ayres explains, "however, we had arrangements with him to make some payments on our loan and as a a public agency we have to protect ourselves and protect our taxpayers."

Ayres is not unsympathetic to Liftport's plight.

"I know there have been problems and I expect problems when you're trying to commercially produce carbon nanotubes en masse and work with universities to try and create something new.

"I have a lot of admiration for the tremendous task they've undertaken. I realize it's a very daunting challenge for them, it's fraught with hurdles and there will be delays. At a certain point in time we have a responsibility to the people who ultimately provide the economic development fund."

For his part, Michael Laine of Liftport is forthright about the situation if a somewhat unhappy about the way it has played out.

"It's no secret. I'm not trying to dodge that. I'm $15K behind on my obligations," Mr. Laine states.

"[There's an email] I sent two weeks ago saying we're going to do our balloon test in Millville because we're committed to Millville. .... There's been plenty of opportunity to communicate with me directly and say 'we're thinking of seeking legal action.' The first thing I hear about it is in The Daily Journal."

The technical issue stymying Liftport is converting their Carbon NanoTube (CNT) furnace from a batch process to a continuous production process that can turn out commercial volumes of CNT's.

"We've been making nanotubes for four months," Laine reveals. "It's no different than anyone else is doing it's just not at volume. They're Single-walled CNT's ... the quality's fine there's just not much of it. That's the problem - nobody can produce substantial quantities of CNT's – yet.

"We're tackling something that's never been done before in the history of mankind and - Don's right - we expected problems and there were problems. But we never would have entered into this agreement with them in the first place has we not fundamentally believed that we have access to a key technology."

Liftport's legal troubles don't end there. The company has a matching loan from Cumberland Empowerment Zone (CEZ), the county organisation that, according to its web site, "provides financing for economic and community development initiatives as well as business and industrial expansion in the Empowerment Zone target areas" using federal funds.

"Our board did authorize us to go the same route," says Jeannine MacDonald, CEZ's executive director who is also open to resolving the situation outside the courtroom.

"It's definitely imminent and we will be unfortunately filing suit. We're not closing the door. We're just doing what we have to do to protect our interests. We certainly remain willing to speak with Liftport and work with them."

Laine declined to disclose what the next steps will be but remains undaunted.

"I still think we have a key technology Laine contends. "There's a technique we have helped pioneer that's part of that key mass-production process."

Paraphrasing Edison, Laine says “We haven't failed, we've just discovered four years of how not to do it.”

Labels: carbon nanotube, Space elevator

Astronomers Launch Space Exploration 2007

The Albuquerque Astronomical Society (TAAS) showed a large, diverse crowd of conference attendees what astronomers see, an alternative technique for seeing it and then Alan Hale caught us up on what's been happening in his personal and professional life in the 10 years since

Hale-Bopp to launch the Space Engineering and Science Institute's 2007 edition of its International Conference and Exposition on Science, Engineering and Habitation in Space.

TAAS's Bruce Levin showed why amateur astronomers go to great trouble and expense to practice their hobby/profession by taking us billions of light years into space via a series of photos from NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day. Next, Dale Murray, another TAAS member explained the ins and outs and whys and wherefores of backyard astronomy with binoculars.

The evening ended with audience and TAAS members gathering behind the hotel for some stargazing with the kind assistance of several TAAS members like local mechanic Ric Thiem who brought the giant scope seen at the left that provided gorgeous views of the moon like the one seen below.








More pictures from the conference kick-off are available at my Picassa web gallery.

Labels: Space elevator, Space Exploration

NASA Kills Funding for the Home of Space Elevator Plan

Collateral Damage

Student Fellows Prize Canceled

"Due to funding constraints beyond NIAC's control, the 2007-2008 Call for the NIAC Student Fellows Prize (original due date April 16, 2007) has been canceled."

NIAC's Student Program awarded $9000 fellowships to several students every year allowing them "to investigate revolutionary ideas for space exploration."

The 2006 - 2007 winners were searching for answer to questions like; "Will we be able to identify water on other planets using neutron physics? Can space travelers rely on asteroids to protect them from dangerous radiation? Can near-earth objects like asteroids be harnessed and combined with space tethers to allow for faster travel to the Moon, Mars and beyond? Would large orbiting mirrors bring a small part of the Martian surface closer to Earth-like temperatures? Is it possible to develop tiny, bug-like flying robots to explore planetary surfaces?"

Now this stream of knowledge will fall silent.

While there's no official announcement yet, the word is out that NASA is killing the budget for the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) the organization that funded Dr. Brad Edwards' study to "produce an initial design for a space elevator using current or near-term technology and evaluate the effort yet required prior to construction of the first space elevator." (Source: The Space Elevator - NIAC Phase II Final Report)

"The closure of NIAC is extremely disappointing," comments Dr. Brad Edwards by email. "As many of us know and was stated in the presidential commission report a few years back, NIAC is one of the bright lights of NASA.

"Over the years though I have realized that such things like the closure of an excellent program are to be expected.

"NASA is a large federal institution driven more by political forces than by an interest to create the best space program. I think we need to stop looking to NASA for space-related activities and focus on independent programs."

The Futures Channel has an excellent video on NIAC that shows the excellent value that can be had for a few million dollars when the right people are given the resources to think freely. NIAC's funding (~$4m/year) is a minuscule percentage of the total NASA budget (~$16B/year) and the institute historically applies well over 70% of that budget to research.

The credit for breaking this story goes to Keith Cowing, writer and editor of NASA Watch (and astrobiologist, journalist, former rocket scientist, and recovering ex-civil servant) who was unreserved in his judgement of this move "This is just plain stupid. Let me repeat this for clarity's sake, Mike, ([or] whoever made it) this is A STUPID DECISION."

NIAC Director Robert Cassanova, PhD was somewhat more circumspect in his email response but no less heartfelt.

"We were very disappointed to hear that NASA will not be continuing the NIAC due to constraints on the NASA budget. However, NIAC has generated a legacy of advanced concepts that may have a significant impact on future activities in aeronautics and space.

"Possibly more importantly, NIAC will leave a legacy of a process which encourages creative
scientists and engineers to intellectually venture beyond the evolutionary concepts the dominate the near term and to creatively explore potentially revolutionary concepts. These concepts may be the genesis of emerging technologies that enable these and other revolutionary concepts.

"The NIAC process has inspired the technical community to reach for the stars with credibility and integrity.

"We appreciate the opportunity that NASA has given us for the past nine years to explore the possibilities for future space exploration that are limited only by our imagination."

The NIAC Timeline that laid out its "vision for space exploration" and the integration of those ideas into NASA's future programs has four streams. The space elevator was the only one common to them all.

Labels: NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts, NIAC, Space elevator, Space Exploration

Space Elevator Journal Covers Space Exploration 2007

Although this has been in the works for some time, I can only now reveal the exciting news that the Space Elevator Journal will be covering Space Exploration 2007, including the Second Biennial Space Elevator Workshop live and in person. The plan is to provide as much live coverage as time permits and record as much of the proceedings as possible and make it available in various forms afterwards.

Feedback from you, the reader, will help shape the coverage. Tell me what most interests you by clicking the 'Leave a Comment' link in the footer below.

I also need to know if people are interested in a CD or DVD with audio and video of the proceedings and PDF copies of the papers presented.

Your intrepid scribe also plans to get one-on-one interviews with as many of the space elevator pioneers present as time and scheduling will permit. I just won't sleep is all. :)

Many thanks to Phil Richter, President of conference hosts Space Engineering and Science Institute and Administrative Chair, Space Exploration 2007 for making this possible.

Labels: Space elevator, Space Exploration, Space Media

Cassini Spacecraft Images Seas of Fuel on Saturn's Moon Titan

Titan's lake compared to Lake Superior

Source: NASA JPL

In keeping with the Space Elevator Journal's mission of showing what a post space elevator reality might look like I search out stories about resources in space that will be even more accessible and better researched after the space elevator is built.

"Instruments on NASA's Cassini spacecraft have found evidence [of] seas, likely filled with liquid methane or ethane, in the high northern latitudes of Saturn's moon Titan. One such feature is larger than any of the Great Lakes of North America and is about the same size as several seas on Earth."

Even after doing article after article on this I still get blown away by what's out there. The science fiction writer in me envisions convoys of robot tankers flying to Titan and filling up with fuel for a thirsty space community. Is it possible space elevator economics will make it profitable to return the fuel to Earth and we can stop draining our own planet?

I wonder how long it will be before there's a Dunkin' Donuts and a convenience store in orbit around Titan? "Thank you very much. Come again." --PB--

View Full News Release

"Source: NASA JPL - [These movies], comprised of several detailed images taken by Cassini's radar instrument, shows bodies of liquid near Titan's north pole. [They] show many of the features commonly associated with lakes on Earth, such as islands, bays, inlets and channels, are also present on this cold Saturnian moon. ... Strong evidence that larger bodies seen in infrared images are, in fact, seas [that] are most likely liquid methane and ethane."

View QuickTime Video (lg, no audio) (70.9 MB)

View QuickTime Video (sm, no audio) (56.1 MB)

Labels: Space commerce, space commercialisation, Space elevator, space habitat

How will space chickens sit on their eggs?

Space food has come a long way since John Glenn choked down bite-sized cubes, freeze dried foods, and semi-liquids in aluminum toothpaste-type tubes to become the first human to eat a meal in space*. Hopefully, by the time the space elevator is built, there will be space farms and zero-gravity food preparation technology that better approximate eating on Earth (except for that floating thing).

A recent European Space Agency (Quicktime/WMP) video "gives an overview of the meals served on the ISS on normal days and at special occasions [and] also outlines the underlying nutritional and psychological factors that determine what astronauts [eat] in orbit."

These guys are eating "a Sicilian starter followed by roast quail in a wine sauce and rice pudding with dried fruit." It sounds better than my menu for today but, due to the stress of the small environment and work they do, food is the main source of relaxation and joy for International Space Station crew according to ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter who moderates a report about food for some experts on the ground in this video.

Oh, and the answer to the question posed in the headline? Velcro, baby, Velcro.

--PB--

*Yuri Gagarin did test food and water samples experimentally but his single-orbit flight did not require a meal.

Labels: Space commerce, space commercialisation, Space elevator, Space Food, space habitat

Lift Port Group Out There Pitching the Space Elevator Concept

I love to see this because, where participation in rocketry is somewhat elitist by necessity, the space elevator will open space to a much larger segment of businesses and allow individual participation at a grassroots level. Space elevators hold the potential for the average person to get to space.

LiftPort Group (LPG) founder and President Michael Laine recently told the Kiwanis Club of Seattle how "the Space Elevator will be at the heart of [a] revolutionary transportation service, ... opening up broad-based access to Earth orbits and the inner solar system, LPG will help bring about the creation of entire new [space commerce] markets[that] can only become viable through safe, inexpensive, routine access to the inner solar system.

"In short, we at LiftPort Group believe that development of the space elevator is a crucial step in the future of Earth and space."

Labels: Space commerce, Space elevator

Space Exploration 2007: Program Highlights

Space Exploration 2007 (SEC 2007) is the place for space elevator professionals, academics and enthusiasts to be Sunday, March 25 to Wednesday, March 28.

The program (in MS-Word format) for the Second International Conference and Exposition on Science, Engineering and Habitation in Space and the Second Biennial Space Elevator Workshop on the Space Engineering and Science Institute site includes three (out of a total of 8) keynote speakers on topics related to the space elevator.

Dr. Brad Edwards speaking on The Space Elevator: Problems, Progress, and Plans.

Dr. Bryan Laubscher gives a talk on the conceptual design of and benefits to mankind from the space elevator.

The history and current state of the Space Elevator Games will be covered by Ben Shelef of the Spaceward Foundation.

In another part of the program Dr. Laubscher returns to moderate a three-hour panel 'brainstorming session' in which the audience is welcome to participate entitled Global Space Elevator Road Map Workshop.

SEC2007, which is cosponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers' Aerospace Division, is taking place in the Albuquerque Marriott Pyramid North Hotel in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.

Please mention you heard about the conference on the Space Elevator Journal when you either register for SEC2007 via the online registration form or mail in your payment and registration form to:

SES Institute
91 Mira Mesa
Rancho Santa Margarita, CA
92688

Labels: Space elevator, space habitat

Music for the Space Elevator Ride

The space elevator entered the collective consciousness over 110 years ago through the mind of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and remained largely hidden behind the Iron Curtain until it entered pop culture in Sir Arthur C. Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise in 1979.

A portal to a new dimension of the shared mind opened up in mid-2006 with the release of Inquisitor Betrayer's CD Space Elevator four years after an electronics engineer with a synthesizer fixation (and closet alien) named Dale Kay, and multi-instrumentalist/keyboardist Wes Antczak started putting out symphonic electronica on their particular wavelength.

Along the way, the duo was augmented by a maiden named Lorraine who liked Dale's last name so much she took it as her own when they married.

Speaking to the Space Elevator Journal in their collective e-mail voice the band explains what attracted them to the space elevator as an album concept.

Dale and Wes are in harmony on the concept's genesis in the excitement of watching sci-fi influences from Arthur C. Clarke, Stanislaw Lem and "favorite TV shows such as Star Trek, Space 1999, and later Babylon 5, and movies such as (of course) the Star Wars saga" become reality.

"Man's journey into space is at hand," adds Wes. "It's real, it's complex, it's frightening, It's also the greatest ride we can ever imagine. It's all of these things rolled up into one fantastic and unbelievably intense experience."

"The music goes beyond anything earthly and current – to connect with something so into the future," Lorraine explains. "I wasn’t actually in on selecting the concept. It was something decided before I joined the band. Both Dale and Wes are heavily into sci-fi [and] I too am a big sci-fi fan going back as far as the old Buck Rogers serials, Jules Verne books and the 'Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity' series of books (and no, I am not that old)."

Once the SE is built and the world is "busy with a mission other than self-destruction" Dale opines SE passengers (and listeners) will be able to "relax, sit back, enjoy the music. The ride is all about you now."

Offered a free ticket to space on the SE Wes would simply "go for a quick spin around the solar system and then probably come back home and get back to making more music."

Lorraine "would probably just give my free ride to someone else [because] I don’t even like to fly in an airplane" [but thinks] "it would work for Dale [because he] is an alien you know ... and lately I’ve been beginning to wonder about Wes. How else could [Dale] come up with all the stuff he puts in our music?"

"I would like to take a look around with my camera in hand," agrees Dale the newly-outed alien. "Maybe park up next to one of the new telescopes that would be in place by the time I could go for a ride. Hook my camera up and just take some pictures [and then]- home ... it's been a while since I been there."


Listen to samples here at Inquisitor Betrayer's web site or just Buy the Disc

--SEJ--

Labels: Space Culture, Space elevator, Space Media

Second Biennial Space Elevator Workshop

The second Biennial Space Elevator Workshop takes place at Space Exploration 2007 (SEC 2007) - a four day conference on the theme of “Humankind in Space: Competition or Collaboration.”

According to conference organizers, The Space Engineering and Science Institute, SEC 2007, held Sunday, March 25 to Wednesday, 28 March 2007 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, "will draw together an international array of scientists, engineers, educators, managers and entrepreneurs and students."

The conference offers keynote talks, planning sessions and panel discussions on a broad array of topics;

• planetary exploration,
• bases,
• habitation,
• space station,
• engineering and construction in space and on the Moon and Mars,
• space access,
• space transportation,
• space elevator technologies and advanced concepts,
• entrepreneurial ventures in/for space,
• space power,
• space resource development,
• NEO’s,
• space commerce, law, education

There will also be a Student Robotics Competition in the form of a space elevator (SE) climber challenge the goal of which is to design and build a climber able to climb a 30-foot ribbon with ground-based beamed power carrying a detachable payload representing SE cargo or, in the case of a moon-based SE, the command module components of a lunar base.

SEC 2007 is looking for multi-disciplinary student teams from high schools, two- and four-year colleges to participate and there are four already signed up;

• Intelligent Distributed Multi-Agent Robotics Systems Lab at the University of New Mexico
• Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN (headed by the SEC 2007 Robotics Chair Ahad Nasab)
• Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Akron (Ohio)
• Department of Advanced Technical Education (ATE), Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

Conference rates at the Albuquerque Marriott Pyramid North are available until February 14 by calling the hotel directly at (505) 821-3333 (Toll-free: 1-800-262-20430) or via the Marriot's online reservation system. Mention SEC 2007 or use Group Code 'spespea'.

Labels: space colonisation, Space commerce, Space elevator, space habitat, Space Law, space policy

Super Honeycomb CNT's: New Hope for Space Elevator Tether?

Beijing -- Hope for the space elevator was set back when Nicola Pugno of Politecnico di Torino published a study in August 2006 pointing up problems with the proposed tether design. When Coluci et al proposed the existence of super-nanotubes in August 2006 Signor Pugno turned the problem into an opportunity publishing an evaluation of the strength, toughness and stiffness of super-nanotubes in October 2006 predicting "huge toughening mechanisms [that suggest] the feasibility of 'super-composites'" comparable to nacre (AKA mother-of-pearl).

Building on these previous works Tsinghua University scientists Min Wang, Xinming Qiu, and Xiong Zhang released a paper (abstracted here on the Institute of Physics site) on their study modeling the Mechanical Properties of Super Honeycomb Structures Based on Carbon Nanotubes. Their report shows a super honeycomb network configuration of hexagonal patterns made from periodically repeating carbon nanotube Y junctions "increases the ductility of the nanomaterials" so that they not only keep the "renowned strength and elasticity" of straight nanotubes but have "great flexibility and outstanding capability" to transfer force to other parts of the structure when broken.

Their paper concludes, in part, that "the network structures are expected to provide useful applications not only in nanoelectronics but also in fiber-reinforced composites."

In December, 2006, Signor Pugno told the Space Elevator Journal by email that he was "developing a theory to design a flaw-tolerant megacable."

Labels: carbon nanotube, CNT, nanotechnology, Space elevator

New Space Debris from Chinese Anti-Satellite Weapon Test

Space debris already causes major problems in space elevator design and space operations and the situation just got worse.

Aviation Week & Space Technology reporter Craig Covault says the January 22 issue will carry an article detailing reports of a "a major new Chinese military capability" in the form of an Anti-Satellite (ASAT) weapon.

Covault's report explains as-yet unconfirmed intelligence agency reports indicate China performed a successful ASAT weapons test at more than 500 mi. altitude destroying an aging Chinese weather satellite target with a kinetic kill vehicle launched on board a ballistic missile.the attack is believed to have occurred at about 5:28 p.m. EST Jan. 11.

"Details emerging from space sources indicate that the Chinese Feng Yun 1C (FY-1C) polar orbit weather satellite launched in 1999 was attacked by an ASAT system launched from or near the Xichang Space Center ...as the weather satellite flew at 530 mi. altitude 4 deg. west of Xichang located in Sichuan province ... a major Chinese space launch center.

The test, if it occurred as envisioned by intelligence source, could also have left considerable space debris in an orbit used by many different satellites."

If the Chinese can shoot down satellites can they shoot down a space elevator climber?

Labels: Space debris, Space elevator

Designing the Orbital Space Tourism Experience

Some people like art or cars. Techno-journalists are info-geeks who get excited about well-designed web sites engorged with hard information. Couple that with the desire to write about things that will happen after the space elevator is built like space tourism and solar-power satellites and the Space Future (SF) site is pure info-porn.

In a kind of logical mobius strip SF credits its own commercial consulting arm, Space Future Consulting with its genesis. In any case, it is the work of some well-ordered minds who have laid out a smörgåsbord of articles and studies about space habitat and tourism, space vehicles and space power generation.

Among those is the article mentioned in title from Spaceport Associates' Derek Webber laying out the principal parameters of a successful space tourism venture.

Webber posits that "the average potential orbital space tourist is probably male, aged mid fifties, and works full time even though being worth at least $200M" who will book his trip with a specialist space agency on a polar orbit that will provide the most diverse view of terrestrial features.

The article covers the potential medical, technical and human aspects of pre-flight, on-orbit and return phases of the journey.

Webber assumes orbit will be achieved by conventional rockets or space planes with no consideration given to a space elevator.

--PB--

Labels: Private space travel, space colonisation, Space commerce, space commercialisation, Space elevator, space habitat, space tourism

NOVA: Space Elevator - Cheaper, Safer Than Rockets?

The NOVA scienceNOW segment on the space elevator that aired on Tuesday (January 9, 2007) is an excellent introductory explanation of what a space elevator is, carbon nanotubes, beamed power and the challenges involved in making it all come together.

My favourite quote was Neil de Grasse Tyson saying "A space Elevator can be cheaper and safer than rockets - giving routine access to the solar system."

See the 12-minute broadcast segment via:

QuickTime high | low RealVideo high | low Windows Media high | low

Liftport didn't get mentioned in the broadcast (even though Liftport Sysadmin Brian "Kilroy" Dunbar claims the elevator doors that close on Neil de Grasse Tyson in the intro are theirs) but they were well covered in a video extra as per this SpaceLF8R Journal post: Space Elevator Segment on NOVA scienceNOW (PBS)

Dr. Edwards made a brief appearance on the space elevator segment and provided answers for the Why Build IT? flash extra on the NOVA site. He is cited as being from something called Black Line Ascension. He did hint in an earlier comment on the SpaceLF8R Journal that something new was up. Stay tuned.

Labels: Space elevator, Space Media

Postcards from the Future

Clip from trailer for Postcards from the Future
Source: Mahalo Bay Films

US President George W. Bush is not the only one with visions of The Moon, Mars and Beyond. It's also the tagline of Alan Chan's upcoming 'future documentary', Postcards from the Future set in (and inspired by) the near-future Vision for Space Exploration era chronicling of the life of Sean Everman while he works on the new moonbase as a civilian electrical engineer building out the base's power grid, his days captured in a series of video postcards and personal messages he occasionally sends to his wife on Earth.

Director Alan Chan
Courtesy: Mahalo Bay Films

Chan adds directing Postcards to his earlier movie credits that include a stellar list of mainstream films (Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Titanic and Polar Express) as well as the short about the space elevator discussed in an earlier Space Elevator Journal post (see: Proud Papa Portrays Progeny).

There's a short trailer available here (requires Quicktime) and synopsis (in PDF format) on the movie's site. The curiosity of film geeks may be whetted by the shot anatomy explaining the all-digital process.

Labels: Space Culture, Space elevator, Space Media

Space Elevator Segment on NOVA scienceNOW (PBS)

The January 9, 2007 broadcast of NOVA scienceNOW has a segment about building a space elevator. Reading the synopsis, it sounds like it focuses heavily on the recent XPrize Cup.

A 2-minute preview of the show is available in several flavours.

QuickTime high | low RealVideo high | low Windows Media high | low

There's also some excellent collateral material. One in the form of a Flash presentation entitled Why Build It with answers by none other than Dr. Brad Edwards. The same presentation is available in HTML format.

Source: WGBH Boston

In a video extra available on the show's web site the NOVA scienceNOW's host, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson*, pays a visit to Liftport Group's CEO Michael Laine and Tom Nugent to see a demo of Liftport's robot climber in this short video available in QuickTime high and low speed versions and RealVideo high and low speed versions as well. The intro is voiced by producer Joe McMaster.

* Dr. deGrasse Tyson has an impressive list of credentials. The man's an astrophysicist, author of 7 books, and director of the Hayden Planetarium in the Rose Center For Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History. He graduated from New York City's Bronx High School of Science before studying physics at Harvard and going on to receive his doctorate in astrophysics from Columbia University.

That makes his comment at the end of the video that he's "still a little bit skeptical" disturbing. I'll try to follow up with him and see what he meant by that or maybe he'll post a comment below. He still thought enough of the SE concept to ask for the first ride. :) --PB--

Labels: Space elevator

Proud Papa Portays Progeny

Dr. Bradley Carl Edwards Ph.D
Source: http://www.bradleyedwards.info

"Our generation will go to space" is the tag line of the best visual explanation of what a space elevator is and does I have seen so far.

Dr. Edwards' site, as the online home of the man who fathered the SE when he developed the first (and so far only?) viable space elevator design in conjunction with NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC), is a fitting place for it.

The Space Elevator Visualistaion Group movie by directed by Alan Chan starts off with the 'One Small Step' sequence and chronicles the demise of government-run space programs before making visually-stunning case for a privately built SE.

Labels: Private space travel, space colonisation, space commercialisation, Space elevator, space tourism

Space Debris

Orbital debris hole in Solar Max Experiment panel

Source: NASA Orbital Debris Photo Gallery

While the space elevator faces a number of significant engineering challenges that need to be overcome before it gets built, the Space Elevator Journal has focussed on challenges that will occur once it's up and running. The issue of space debris, natural and man-made, will be a constant of life in space. Unfortunately, most of the man-made junk is in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO).

Millions of people have lived on Earth for thousands of years but, considering the few humans that have been in space, there may be more garbage per person in space than on Earth.

The link in the title of this post points to a flash animation from the European Space Agency (ESA) that is as compelling as it is disturbing. It shows the accumulation of space debris from the Sputnik launch in 1957 until the year 2000. Earth disappears from view in the mid-1970's.

The ESA's European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) runs a space debris program that explains since October 4th, 1957, more than 4,200 launches have lifted some 5,500 satellites into orbit but only approximately 700 are still operational. This unconscionable waste may be the best single reason for getting a space elevator built and ending Earth-based rocket launches forever.

On 21 January 2001, this 70 kg titanium motor casing from a PAM-D (Payload Assist Module - Delta), reentered the atmosphere over the Middle East landing about 240 km from the Saudi Arabia capital of Riyadh.

Source: NASA Orbital Debris Photo Gallery

According to SOCRATES, the free daily service that predicts the probability of orbital close encounters between satellites and the thousands pieces of debris orbiting Earth, today (/2007/01/02) at 15:32:01.539 UTC Cosmos 489, an old Russian satellite launched in 1972 and SL-8 R/B, a Tsyklon Stage 2 rocket body (launched in 1979) will pass within 0.054 kilometers (177.2 feet) of each other at a relative velocity of 14.225 km/sec (31,820 mph !!!). Allowing for reasonable margins of error means there's a distinct chance these two pieces of space junk will collide (and possibly explode if there's residual fuels, batteries or other volatile materials involved) scattering chunks all over LEO endangering operational satellites and the humans that depend on them.

Orbital debris in LEO*
- 95% junk -

Source: NASA Orbital Debris Program Office

Ironically, both objects are from the Tsiklon program, the first prototype Soviet navigation satellite system but that is only one potential collision among Several large pieces of space debris re-enter the atmosphere every month according to the Aerospace Corporation, a US space R&D centre.

Did it ever occur to you to wonder how many of the satellites have nuclear power sources on board and if any of them have ever decayed back into the atmosphere and/or crashed to Earth? Stay tuned to the Space Elevator Journal.

--PB--

* LEO - Low Earth Orbit: the region of space within 2,000 km of the Earth's surface. It is the most concentrated area for orbital debris.

Labels: Space debris, Space elevator, space environment

Exploring Earth from Space for Free

The beautiful images of Earth returned from space always fill me with awe and wonder. When the space elevator is up and running, first-hand experience of the 'astronaut's-eye-view' of Earth will be the main visual image people will retain once back on Terra Firma.

Madagascar from MIRAVI - Source:ESA

We don't have to wait to see stunning shots of near-real-time events since the European Space Agency (ESA) put up the MERIS Images RApid VIsualisation (MIRAVI) web site offering two-hour-old images of fires, floods and volcanic eruptions etc. from the world’s largest Earth Observation satellite, Envisat, ESA's polar-orbiting Earth observation satellite.

MIRAVI is free and requires no registration to view the images generated from the raw data collected by Envisat’s optical instrument, MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS), and provides them online within two hours and also provides a searchable archive of images taken since May 2006.

The site comes with a bit of a disclaimer: "Although the images are fascinating and provide the marvellous feeling that users are ‘onboard the satellite’, they are not suitable for scientific use. Scientists use MERIS products that exploit the instrument’s 15 spectral bands and are generated with sophisticated algorithms. MIRAVI images use only a few spectral bands processed to appear the way the naked eye would see them."

Technical Note: I couldn't get the MIRAVI site to work in FireFox although it worked well in Internet Explorer. Non-technical types may find the interface a bit daunting and it takes a few steps to actually view an image but the results are well worth it. --PB--

Labels: Space elevator, space environment, Weather Satellite

Passive Radiation Shielding Considerations for the Proposed Space Elevator

This article by A.M. Jorgensen of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology's Electrical Engineering Department, S.E. Patamia from the Space Instrumentation and System Engineering department of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and B. Gassend from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was published online 24 October, 2006 on Science Direct and will appear in Acta Astronautica, Volume 60, Issue 3, February 2007, Pages 198-209.

A precis of the abstract follows. Full text access to this article is available for US$30 upon registration with Science Direct.

The Earth's natural van Allen radiation belts present a serious hazard to ... travel on [a] space elevator. The average radiation level is sufficiently high that it can cause radiation sickness, and perhaps death, for humans spending more than a brief period of time in the belts without shielding.

The exact dose and the level of the related hazard depends on the type or radiation, the intensity of the radiation, the length of exposure, and on any shielding introduced.

For the space elevator the radiation concern is particularly critical since it passes through the most intense regions of the radiation belts.

Apollo astronauts [travelling through the belts] received radiation doses up to approximately 1 rem over a time interval less than an hour. A vehicle climbing the space elevator travels approximately 200 times slower than the moon rockets did, [resulting] in an extremely high dose up to approximately 200 rem under similar conditions, in a timespan of a few days [and may also affect] technological systems on the space elevator.

[This paper gives] an overview of the radiation belts in terms relevant to space elevator studies ... compute[s] the expected radiation doses and evaluate[s] the required level of shielding.

[The authors] concentrate on passive shielding using aluminum, but also look briefly at active shielding using magnetic fields.

[They] also look at the effect of moving the space elevator anchor point and increasing the speed of the climber. Each of these mitigation mechanisms will result in a performance decrease, cost increase, and technical complications for the space elevator.

--PB--

Labels: Space elevator, Van Allen radiation belt