International Space Elevator Consortium
March 2014 Newsletter

In this Issue:

ISEC Note
President’s Corner
Space Elevator Conference
ISEC Research Committee
CLIMB Final Call for Papers

ISEC Note

Dear Friend,

Welcome to the March, 2014 edition of the ISEC eNewsletter.

In this issue's President's Corner, ISEC President Dr. Peter Swan reveals that ISEC is going to be a supporter of the annual NSS/ISDC Conference to be held in May of this year.  NSS and ISEC are partners and this should be a great conference - plan on attending!

Also in this issue, you can find information about the upcoming ISEC 2014 Space Elevator Conference and the recently created ISEC Research Committee.

Please don’t forget to LIKE US on Facebook, FOLLOW US on Twitter, and enjoy the photos and videos that we’ve posted on Flickr and YouTube, all under our Social Identity of ISECdotORG.

Thank you! 

ISEC

President's Corner

ISEC has just committed to support the NSS International Space Development Conference in Los Angeles from May 15-19, 2014.  We will provide an exhibit and contribute to discussions throughout the many sessions.  The complimentary missions between ISEC and its affiliate are remarkable.  

The National Space Society's vision is: "People living and working in thriving communities beyond the Earth, and the use of the vast resources of space for the dramatic betterment of humanity." while the ISEC vision is definitely supporting:
"A world with inexpensive, safe, routine, and efficient access to space for the benefit of all mankind."

Please feel free to come to the conference and stop by the exhibit or initiate discussions on the space elevator during any of the sessions.  

"Keep Climbing my Friends!" 

Pete Swan

Registration now open for the 2014 ISEC Space Elevator Conference

ISEC is very pleased to announce that Registration is now OPEN for the 2014 ISEC Space Elevator Conference.

The Conference will be held from Friday, August 22nd, 2014 through Sunday, August 24th.

The Venue will the same place we've had the conference the past two years, Seattle's Museum of Flight.  This has turned out to be a wonderful venue for the Conference and we are thrilled to be able to host the Conference here again.

Presentation Abstracts are now being submitted, workshops are being planned and ISEC will have a special announcement regarding the Space Elevator Conference in the very near future - watch this space!

Mark you calendars now - be there or be square!

The ISEC Research Committee

ISEC's Research Committee has been working on the question: what will it take to make a space elevator a reality? ISEC and related organizations in Europe and Japan have generated interest and have advanced the state of the art through competitions, conferences and publications.

ISEC has provided a vehicle to publish research by academics, graduate students and individuals working independently. The recent study Space Elevators: An Assessment of the Technological Feasibility and the Way Forward has defined a new standard, based on the latest research, and the Research Committee wants to use it to promote consistency among projects that people will undertake around the world. We also want to encourage new entrants to the field.

Beyond that, there are some tasks that need a larger effort involving professional teams of experts. The highest priorities are to obtain a tether material that is strong enough and to design full-scale tether climbers. Also very important is how best to cope with the Earth's turbulent atmosphere. Such work requires substantial amounts of money. We have quantified how much is needed to make a real difference, and we are focused on ways of raising it.

The latest information about the ISEC Research Committee can be found on the ISEC website.

If you are interested in contributing to future research inside the space elevator architecture, please send your CV/bio to: john.knapman [at] isec.org.

CLIMB Volume 3 - Final Call for Papers

The window is now open for authors interested in submitting papers for Volume 3 of CLIMB, the only Journal devoted solely to the Space Elevator.

Abstracts may be submitted between now and March 31st, 2014 to climb@isec.org. 

ISEC is interested in publishing both technical papers, subject to peer-review along with "Additional reading" papers; documents that might be of interest to a reader interested in the Space Elevator.

Volume 1 of CLIMB was dedicated to Yuri Artsutanov, the Russian engineer who was the original inventor of the Space Elevator structure that is the model today, while Volume 2 of CLIMB was dedicated to Jerome Pearson, the American engineer who independently invented this concept and put into place much of the scientific and mathematical underpinnings for this tensile-based structure.  Volume 3 of CLIMB will be dedicated to Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the person who more than anyone else has popularized this concept.