International Space Elevator Consortium
January 2023 Newsletter
The “official” January newsletter was combined with the 2022 December issue, but this is a truncated issue to list some approaching deadlines.
Happy Holidays … and deadlines approaching!
First, a quick thank you for a very successful year with some great insights into the future space elevator transportation infrastructure. We are moving closer to an understanding of the remarkable transformational strengths emerging from this “beating the rocket equation” concept. We are indeed on a “Road to the Space Elevator Era” and taking daily steps towards that goal.
I would also like to thank Sandee for doing this “Special Newsletter” as we usually give her the month off—but she said it would not be too taxing. In addition, a happy holiday for all of you is definitely deserved!
David Brandt-Erichsen deserves a big THANKS for his enrichment of our ISEC website with all of his additions, corrections, updates, and just plain improvements. If you have not been to our website lately, please wander over there and admire his enhancements. (Suggestions are welcome.)
Starting this new year with our normal opportunities for each of us to participate, contribute time, and/or contribute a presentation/paper, I thought I would remind each of us of near term deadlines.
— Pete Swan
The International Astronautics Congress has a 28 Feb deadline—just around the corner—for their abstract submission at their yearly global space focused conference. I am hoping that each of you think about how you can contribute. (Please, let me know of your intentions – Pete). Of course, I really want to encourage support to our ISEC “in-person” conference. We plan to have it in August near Chicago. [The board is still working on this.] I do this notification each year as the deadlines and commitment dates for these conferences vary and I try to ensure our contributors have plenty of time be ready.
Deadline: mid-May for conference in Aug or Sept 2023
“Permanent Space Access Transportation Infrastructure”
Chicago region
ISEC Conference-yeah! We look forward to gathering again in-person: we have missed the camaraderie, innovative ideas, updates, and momentum building characteristics of our conferences with face-to-face questions and answers. Please plan on supporting this conference! The theme will reflect the magnitude of the venture with several sub-themes carrying on the tradition of supporting ongoing ISEC studies and those just starting. The major categories to be emphasized this year are:
Tether/Climber Interface (finished ISEC Study)
Dual Space Access Architecture (on-going ISEC Study)
Advanced Materials Science and Engineering
Apex Anchor Capabilities and Missions (new ISEC Study)
Significant Questions to be Answered
Deadline: early Feb for Space Elevator track for 25-28 May 2023 ISDC Conference
“A New Space Age”
National Space Society, Frisco Texas (near Dallas)
Abstracts can be submitted now with a Space Elevator Track as your suggested target for presentation. The focus of the session will be: “A Dual Space Access Strategy is well along the way.” This combining of strengths of advanced rockets and space elevators will be transformational for future mission success—rockets and space elevators cooperating and complementary. Many of the discussions will focus around a permanent transportation infrastructure moving massive cargo daily, routinely, inexpensively, safely, and environmentally friendly. This Green Road to Space is entering engineering development and will ensure our future with improvements to the Earth’s environment, expand our reach towards the Moon and Mars, and enable projects not even thought of yet. These transformational transportation strengths will be able to raise massive payloads to GEO and beyond (30,000 tons per year at Initial Operations) enabling strategic investment, ubiquitous access, and uninterrupted exchange of resources…the staples of Space Elevators. Join the world’s leading experts as they outline, discuss, and debate a unique approach which will revolutionize access to space.
Deadline: 28 Feb for 2-6 Oct 2023 Conference
“Give Space A Chance”
International Astronautical Congress, Baku Azerbaijan. Abstracts shall be submitted by Feb 28, 2023, through https://iafastro.directory/iac/account/login/ and shall fit into one of the following IAC categories:
Science and Exploration
Applications and Operations
Technology
Infrastructure
Space and Society
With, of course, our Space Elevator themed technical session: D4.3 “Modern Day Space Elevators Customer Design Drivers.” Design concepts to support permanent space access infrastructures are driven from many arenas. The first is the dynamic situation of deploying tether climbers on a 100,000 km tether stretching across the space environment from the surface of the ocean to the altitude well beyond geosynchronous orbit. Within the Earth based region, there are design drivers due to various environments ranging from the ocean and atmospheric demands near the Earth Port, as well as the tremendous temperature range and environmental challenges of the vacuum of space. In addition, architects and systems engineers must consider a vast range of requirements from customers. The demands of a million tonnes deposited on the surface of Mars (or the Moon) and the needs at geosynchronous for 3,000,000 tonnes of space solar power satellites solidifies requirements to move massive payloads routinely, daily, inexpensively, and oriented to customers’ needs. In addition, the dramatic need to accomplish all of this without damaging the Earth’s atmosphere will ensure the Space Elevator as the Green Road to Space must be realized. Indeed, these customer demands will lead to the realization that Space Elevators will enable missions of vast importance to humanity (saving the planet with Space Solar Power satellite delivery, Mars Settlement delivery, Lunar habitat support, and missions to the outer planets). This session will discuss needs of Space Elevators’ future customers and start the refinement of design criteria and identify customer requirements necessary to initiate realistic designs.
Remember, these conferences are a major source of sharing our discoveries and expressing our hopes for the future. If you go to our website and look at the “recent articles and papers” you can see the success during 2022 in this arena. These steps are important to our outreach program and our overall progress.