Space Elevators: A History

The chapters cover the early conceptualizations of the Russians Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and his Celestial Castle, and Yuri Artsutanov and his Cosmic Railway, and the American Jerome Pearson and his Orbital Tower; how writers and artists imaginatively seized the concept for their science fiction tales; the initial interest of NASA and the contribution of Brad Edwards to the space elevator baseline concept and carbon nanotubes; associations and organizations around the world established to further study and promote the concept; the importance of conferences and sessions devoted to space elevators; and non-Earth space elevator concepts. The book is completed with biographies of the contributors, a chronology of the space elevator, and selected oral interview transcripts conducted with space elevator pioneers.