International Space Elevator Consortium
June 2016 Newsletter
In this Issue:
Editor’s Note
President’s Corner
History Committee Report
Why Space Elevators
Editor’s Note
Dear Friend,
Welcome to the June, 2016 edition of the ISEC Newsletter.
Registration is NOW OPEN for the 2016 ISEC Space Elevator Conference to be held at Seattle's Museum of Flight in August of this year. More information about this must-attend event is shown elsewhere in this Newsletter. Early Bird registration ends July 7th, so don't delay - Be there or be square!
In this months President's Corner, ISEC President Dr. Peter Swan discusses an idea he adopted from the British Interplanetary Society, one that helps to focus and target areas of effort and areas where you can help ISEC build its 'Body of Knowledge' about the Space Elevator.
In addition, we have a very lengthy report in this months History Committee report and the latest installment of "Why Space Elevators".
Finally, we have the very exciting announcement that electronic copies (.pdf format) of ALL ISEC reports (Yearly reports, the CLIMB Journal and the Via Ad Astra Magazine) are now available FOR FREE on both the ISEC website and on the Space Elevator Page of our affiliate, the National Space Society (NSS). Details are shown later on in this Newsletter.
If you want to help us make a space elevator happen, JOIN ISEC and get involved! A space elevator would truly revolutionize life on earth and open up the solar system and beyond to all of us.
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
I was recently reading the newsletter from the British Interplanetary Society [grandfather of all space associations]. The lead for their marketing committee [equivalent of our Director for Publicity - role open] made a very good series of points. One of those was they had target groups for their BIS communications: Experts, Enthusiasts, and Education. I was really taken with this notion of the three "E's." Their focus on a series of target audiences seems like a very good idea and one that we could embrace. As such, I was struck with the beauty and simplicity of the approach. As I was thinking about this, I was taken with our approach to building the space elevator Body of Knowledge and our approach to starting a Mega-Project development. As a starting point, I developed the following table describing the target audiences for our various efforts. Please think of this table as a method to prioritize how you can best help ISEC in the next few months.
The British Interplanetary Society's conclusion from their analyses of their marketing committee was simple: More members create more opportunities for their Society. I believe this is a truism. As such, my plea to our readers [that be you], is:
Please join the International Space Elevator Consortium!
Keep Climbing my Friends --
Pete Swan
pete.swan@isec.org
History Committee Report
Hello and Welcome!
I'm Paula Smith and as the new chair of the ISEC History committee I just wanted to say how much I am looking forward to hearing from you about this exciting endeavor! We can use more volunteers! You can help transcribe audio interviews into Word or write summaries of those. See one of those below as Michael "Fitzer" Fitzgerald describes the Space Elevator. A great project to work on from home and even with your children as it is simple enough and learning about the Space Elevator is a welcome result. High school students receive community service credits as ISEC is a 501C. College students achieve the addition of boosting their experience and credibility by placing the International Space Elevator Consortium on their resume as they work with seasoned Space Professionals from across the globe, many of them published authors and PHDs! Our current college volunteer is conducting interviews as well as transcribing them and is having a great time! We are also going through pictures to select for our website and designing and building that, so we could use your help there too. Come join the fun! paula.smith@isec.org
Summary of Interview with Michael "Fitzer" Fitzgerald
conducted in 2014 by Mark Dodrill
of the International Space Elevator Consortium
In 2014 the Space Elevator went from visionary to practicality, the preliminary engineering/conceptual development stage.. We are beginning to understand the broad relationships. This is not a spatial relationship, as much as an intellectual relationship.
Visionaries: What I think is very relevant to the space elevator revolution is that early in the development of the national security space was the Discoverer program. I believe it was the 13th attempt to launch a prototype version of what is broadly referred to as Discoverer. The first 12 or 13 were, in a sense, complete failures. They are not failures in that we didn't learn something, but they were failures in the sense they did not do the mission job. Of that relentless pursuit of the first success, is something that we need to keep in mind in the space elevator program. We need to make 13 versions of carbon nanotubes, etc. The other truth is that the visionaries have a blurred view of the picture, and they don't see the details that we engineers have to resolve. Their far reaching vision is great because of its flaw. They simply overlook the details.
So we've had a nucleation. 2014 in retrospect was the year we brought the practicality of solid engineering and practical thinking to the vision of the space elevator [a reflection from the 2014 ISEC study on Architectures and Roadmaps].
Technology: The Space Elevator will be a two-phase build. First, where we will be seen as a science pursuit and endeavor and be funded by the National Science Foundation, or Academia, etc. The second phase of it is that of proof and validity. Proof of concept, proof of engineering validation. the second phase is the assembly, and the strengthening of the business model and the business case.
In 2014 we constructed a roadmap to get us to the start of the implementation plans. So we need to get from the entry criteria for the implementation plan, to this technological feasibility and engineering validation. What that means is: the technology isn't bologna and we can build something with it. Then the roadmap will show you that we're going to do a whole bunch of tests and demos and simulations etc..
The next step is the construct of the implementation plans. The current phase is the road-mapping to get the entrance criteria satisfied, and then we need to take those things and build valid implementation plans. So, in the next several years we have a bunch of demonstrations to do. We have to show people, show ourselves that this is real.
We need to connect with younger generation: 'My granddaughter knew about space elevators before I did. They are slightly differently constructed than we are intellectually. We need to take advantage of that. We need to build on that, and we old timers who bring an extraordinary amount of history, experience, persistence and all those sorts of things, we really, really need to ignite the youngsters. 50 years ago I was enthralled with the Discoverer 13 failures problem. I was not fazed by it.'
Funding: We need to dispel the idea that this is government funded and take an action to dispel people of that notion.
Usefulness: The Space Elevator could be useful to put satellites in orbit cheaper and easier. Also we now have an economic reason to gather up space debris.
Timing: 'When?' I say '2035 or 2040' My friends say 'Oh that's far off' and I say 'Gimme a break! I graduated from college 44 years ago, 46 years ago, and that's less than half of that time. It's possible I could buy next year's car and still be driving it in 2035. That's not that far away.'
Challenges: A unique challenge of the Space Elevator is the mega level of it. The marine node may be 80-120 kilometers wide for stability and flexibility.
Market: The Space Elevator is fundamentally a transportation system. So we have to identify the transportation market, and take on the tenets of a transportation model. We want to stop thinking of ourselves as a space endeavor as much as we are a transportation endeavor. Secondly, it's a service. It's more like FedEx and UPS.
Customers: We need to identify who our customers are. Managers in the space industry of large programs do not know about the Space Elevator. Government customers currently need to pay for the ISEC conference just like everyone else since this is not government funded.
"So that my granddaughter's book turns out to be true, and that Arthur C. Clarke was right. It's our job to pass the next part of it." Michael "Fitzer" Fitzgerald
Why Space Elevators
On-time Lift-off
When I teach space systems engineering, early in the class, I always ask: Has any launch from America's spaceports ever launched on time? If one were to say that the launch team scheduled a launch 4 months prior for 2 O'clock on Tuesday the xth day of month y, the answer is not only NO, but a resounding NO. This is not bad as the principal purpose of a launch is SAFE delivery to orbit. The American process is to Launch when Ready, not on-time. Other countries have other launch practices, but America's approach is Launch when Ready. Multiple launches have been delayed over six months - until ready. This lesson is one learned from years of difficulty. Expensive satellite launches demand successful delivery to orbit.
When you go to a train station, what are your expectations? Of course, on-time is the watchword for train schedules. Most of the time, airlines make departures close to their expected times. Bus schedules are almost always on time. So why is access to space any different. It is just a delivery system to a user location.
One of the underappreciated aspects of projected space elevator operations is the capability to launch on time. The current concept of the Initial Operational Capability in the time frame of 2038 is one launch at dawn each day. As this is just an elevator trip to space, launch on time is the watchword for this type of access. One launch per day per space elevator each day. This would be routine access to space as well as low cost. These two traits tied with the concept of 14 metric tons of payload for each space elevator each day will change our understanding of space access. This transportation infrastructure will change the world and open up our solar system for humanity.
Dr. Peter Swan, President - ISEC
We invite anyone to contribute to the newsletter by answering this question.
Please send your inputs to: pete.swan@isec.org.
[note: your submission is permission to print.]