International Space Elevator Consortium
May 2015 Newsletter

In this Issue:

Editor’s Note
President’s Corner
ISEC Conference
Historical Files
Research Lab

Editor’s Note

Dear Friend,

Welcome to the May, 2015 edition of the ISEC eNewsletter.  Once again, we have a lot of news this month!

First of all, we want to remind you that registration is now open for the 2015 ISEC Space Elevator Conference (Early Bird rates are still available)!  ISEC will again be bringing together Engineers, Scientists, Researchers and enthusiasts to talk about and advance our understanding of the Space Elevator.  Registration details are shown later on in this edition - be there or be square!

In this issue's President's Corner, ISEC President Dr. Peter Swan talks about the upcoming space elevator conference and opportunities for you to participate in it.

We also have the next two installments in our new columns, "The Historical Files" and "The Research Lab".  These two columns give you insight into two of the committees established by ISEC to help further our understanding of a space elevator and to help document what has happened in this field so far.

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

The ISEC Space Elevator Conference is now scheduled with its own webpage [21-23 Aug, Seattle Museum of Flight].  Can you imagine?  Yes, I can!  Each year the conference has improved with more highlights and concepts that surprise even the "ol' timers."  Each of us who attend expect surprises as well as the fun of renewing friendships and starting up new ones.  One significant aspect is that we have a smallish conference, somewhere around 60 attendees.  This allows for a single track of topics, multiple workshops and excellent question and answer periods.  Some of the highlights over the last few conferences were:

  • Jerome Pearson exciting us about the future of space.

  • Leonard David challenging the status quo and showing a glimpse into the future.

  • Shuichi Ohno, the president of the Japanese Space Elevator Association, actively participated in many aspects of last year's conference.

  • Peter Robinson initiating a "elevator speech competition".

  • Tether climber competitions using Lego's and 25 foot seat belts to the ceiling.

Each year we have a better conference, and this year will not be different.  Our keynote speaker will be Mr. Mark Haase, PhD student from the University of Cincinnati.  He will be giving us an "insider view" of the development of carbon nanotubes.  He will address material advancements along the line of how it will enable space elevators as he is very knowledgeable on the topic.  As always, we involve participants in many ways, especially the workshops.  Each of these workshops in the past conferences have had their results posted on the website and some results have found their way into the ISEC yearly study reports on the various topics.  This year will be special with two workshops covering two topics: 2015 Marine Node Characteristics and 2016 - to be determined.  

I invite each of you to not only come to our conference, but become involved in it.  We have many open slots for discussions and participation is always rewarding to all parties.  

Keep Climbing my Friends --  Pete Swan

Registration now open for the 2015 ISEC Space Elevator Conference

'Early Bird' rates still available! 

ISEC is very pleased to announce that Registration is now OPEN for the 2015 ISEC Space Elevator Conference.

The Conference will be held from Friday, August 21st, through Sunday, August 23rd.

'Early Bird' rates are available through June 30th, so don't delay!

One of the themes for this year's conference will be the state of strong materials and Mark Haase, long-time proponent of strong materials and the space elevator and a PhD student at the University of Cincinnati, will be giving the Keynote address.

The Venue will the same place we've had the conference the past three 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.

Mark you calendars now - be there or be square!

The Historical Files

The Oral History program at ISEC is an exciting way for everyone to be involved in recording how the Space Elevator idea changes people and how those people, in turn, move us towards the reality of a Space Elevator.  We want to document how individuals from many different walks of life move from never hearing about the Space Elevator, to being exposed to it, to wrestling with what it is and how it works, and finally to wanting to get involved in some way.  Our first interview was conducted with Dr. David Raitt, long time proponent of the Space Elevator program, researcher, and collaborator on many Space Elevator related projects around the world.  His insights and viewpoint of the long-term picture demonstrate how far we have come, and what challenges still remain for us to tackle.  Other people interviewed to date include: a high school student, a novelist, a civil engineer, a futurist, and an entrepreneur.

At the 2015 Space Elevator conference, we will continue gathering these interviews and make sure that these viewpoints are reflected in the upcoming Space Elevator History book that is being written.

The Research Lab

Last month, we looked at the research topic of strong materials. That involves practical laboratory work to produce suitable materials, probably but not necessarily using carbon nanotubes. Another important research topic is computer simulation of the dynamics of a tether, i.e., calculating the tether's movements taking into account tides and many other forces.

Valuable simulation work has already been done by Professors Misra and Fujii, Stephen Cohen and a number of others. The need now is for a more comprehensive tool that we can make available to scientists and engineers to answer "what if?" questions such as increasing the mass of the station at 36,000km altitude (the GEO node) or reducing or even eliminating the mass at 100,000km altitude (the apex anchor).
 
Some work has been done on the effect of winds on the tether in the Earth's atmosphere, and this needs to be incorporated into the model, with and without the presence of a climber. The work investigating how to move the tether to avoid space debris needs including, with the option of doing this from the ocean surface (the marine node) or from a platform at 40km altitude (high stage one). The number, speed and distribution of climbers should be variables. We want to take account of recent research on running climbers at constant power, which shows the advantage of increasing the tapering of the tether at low altitudes.

There is a separate simulation project proposed on the electrodynamics of the tether, including the effect of charged particles and other radiation. We would like the dynamics simulation tool to be sufficiently open ended that it can be integrated with electrodynamics.