Editor’s Note

Dear Fellow Space Elevator Enthusiast,

In the July edition of the newsletter I informed you that one of our ISEC interns from last year, Craig Orrock, had been nominated for the “Engineering Student of the Year” award by the Equal Engineers group.

I am pleased to announce that not only did Craig receive that award, he also received the “Overall Excellence in Engineering 2021” award at the Engineering Talent Awards ceremony! Read more here: https://engineeringtalentawards.com/winners-2021/

Congratulations to Craig--We are proud of your hard work and achievements!

Sandee Schaeffer
Newsletter Editor

President's Corner

by Pete Swan

ISEC Leadership Requires a Belief that
Creates a Vision that Creates a Market

ISEC is the Leader in the Development of Earth Space Elevators – and must remember this and act accordingly. In a recent book, “Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century” by Tim Higgins, the business approach was essentially a “thriller” (as explained by Jeff Rowe of APNEWS) as it “teeters on the edge of technological and financial cliffs.”  Higgins' explanation of the puzzle and approach Mr. Musk was taking was:

“Belief created the vision, the vision would create the market, the market could create cash and cash would create cars.”

Our leadership must believe and push for our vision while timing and project mission must be the focus of our discussions as we move forward. Certainty is essential at the beginning as the “belief source” resides with the visionaries and the leadership. All the problems are present. All the worries are surfacing. All the complexities start to surface. All the uncertainties are exposed.  However, for a mega project to be successful, the pathway towards operations requires leadership resolve and calm portrayal of the road forward. Once you are committed to the project and the remarkable benefits from Earth space elevators, you know their operations are mandatory and will ensure the dreams of many are fulfilled – even while realizing these are great reaches towards our multiple futures. In the case of the Earth space elevator, ISEC believes it will be built -- the timeline is roughly 2037 for first space elevator operations. It will be the chosen Green Road to Space raising payloads with electricity, it will move massive amounts of cargo at roughly 70% efficiency of delivery to the Moon and beyond, and it will enable Space Solar Power satellites to replace coal burning power plants. 

ISEC leadership knows that Space Elevators are an essential development for the future of mankind and that they can be accomplished -- starting now. We must hold solid on 2037 as first operations, the concept of a Green Road to Space, and that we will be in a partnership with advanced rockets called the Dual Space Access Architecture. We must maintain our focus and charge ahead approaching each challenge with an engineering will and knowledge that what we are doing is magnificent.

Pete

Members Only Meeting Videos

Remarkable Video Presentations on the Modern-Day Space Elevator Available Now

Sometimes we forget to review the latest information presented to us as webinars and meeting recordings. Presenters have condensed their research into short explanations of their vast knowledge on the topic. To understand the Modern-Day Space Elevator, one must understand where we are going and who we are doing it for as well as the physics and engineering; and, of course, we need to understand the value proposition of enabling a transportation infrastructure off planet. These topics have been condensed into two recent sets of videos:

----------- ISEC “Members Only” Meeting on 14 Aug, 2021 -----------

The latest eight is a series of presentations orchestrated by both Karyn Gleeson and Dennis Wright. This covers many topics (described last month) such as:

  • Karyn Gleeson - Overview of day and welcome

  • Pete Swan - Status of ISEC

  • Kevin Barry and Eduardo Pineda - Economic Impact Analysis of Space Elevators

  • John Knapman - Interplanetary Launches using a Space Elevator

  • Peter Robinson - Tether Stresses and the Atmosphere Problem

  • Paul Phister - Global Space Train

  • Dennis Wright - Update on the Tether-Climber Interface Study

  • Pete Swan - Dual Space Architecture

These are on our website at https://www.isec.org/2021-isec-meeting and also on our YouTube channel.

------------ Blue Marble meeting on 11 April ------------

Another set was accomplished (with refinements by Karyn Gleeson) with the following speakers and topics:

  • Pete Swan – Space Access Infrastructure

  • Jerry Eddy – Green Road to Space

  • David Dotson – Supporting Space Solar Power

  • Kevin Barry – Economic Returns from Permanent Space Infrastructure

  • Michael Fitzgerald – Architecture of Galactic Harbours

  • Adrian Nixon and Rob Whieldon – Graphene Progress

  • Pete Swan – Dual Space Access Architecture

  • Dennis Wright – Space Elevator Body of Knowledge

  • Vern Hall – Permanent Space Access leads to Global Transportation Intermodalism

These can be seen on our website at:  www.isec.org/ready-to-go. 

------------ ISEC YouTube Channel ------------

In addition, if you go to the YouTube channel of ISEC, you have many older presentations and quite a few more topics covered. There are webinars and podcasts covering many topics from around the world. This can be accessed here: You Tube


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Summary of the presentation “Economic Impact Analysis of Space Elevators” by Kevin Barry & Eduardo Pineda Alfaro:

Since Bradley Edwards's seminal research with NASA 17 years ago, important technical progress has been done by ISEC and others on the Tether material and the Power systems. However, cost per kilogram is a consumer perspective, not an effective value proposition. In much the same way as a consumer has a choice between using a bus or an airplane to travel, if ticket price were indicative of value then you would never build an airport. Kevin and Eduardo’s research proposes a new economic paradigm to see Space Elevators as an investment in innovative infrastructure and identify the strength of the value proposition and the most important actions to take to make the project an interesting investment proposition.

Summary of the presentation “Interplanetary Launches using a Space Elevator” by John Knapman:

The far end of the space elevator - the apex anchor - is an excellent site for launching interplanetary spacecraft. Three methods have been identified:

  1. The space elevator rotates with the earth. As a result, the apex anchor moves at 7.7 km/s, and so a spacecraft simply needs to be detached from there to gain sufficient velocity to reach Mars in three months.

  2. In Matthew Peet's proposal, a spacecraft will accelerate along the tether under the centrifugal force caused by its rotation about the earth. The two effects combine to give even higher launch velocities with greater control over the direction of travel, enabling fast travel to all the solar system bodies or into interstellar space.

  3. Another idea is to place spinning tethers near the apex anchor, giving very high velocities with directional control but with a gentle ride for spacecraft.

Tether Materials

by Adrian Nixon

Industrially Manufactured, Multi-layered, Large-area, Freestanding Sheet Graphene

Industrial manufacturing of sheet graphene is moving astonishingly fast.

Regular readers will recall that in the April 2021 newsletter, I mentioned that General Graphene is the only company in the world who can make polycrystalline sheet graphene at industrial scale and layer it up [1]. This is no longer the case. Another company has made a leap forward in graphene manufacturing technology.

Now, just six months later, Korean company Charmgraphene posted a picture of a proof-of-concept pellicle [2]. A pellicle is a mask transparent to extreme ultra violet light and is used in the manufacture of computer chips.

What is striking about this announcement is that the pellicle is made of multilayer sheet graphene that is freestanding. The sheet graphene is polycrystalline, probably very similar to the material we reported in the April newsletter.

Freestanding means there is no transparent plastic support. What you are looking at in the picture below is large area sheet graphene made of approximately 20 to 30 layers in a metal frame.

graphene pellicle

I’ll say that again because this is important: When you look at the transparent grey material in the picture, what you are seeing is large area sheet graphene 20 to 30 atoms thin – and nothing else. The only support is the metal frame around the edges.

We also know that Charmgraphene can manufacture sheet graphene at speeds of 2 metres per minute [3]. They can also transfer the graphene from the copper foil to a transparent plastic support layer. What we now know is that they have developed the technology to take the graphene and build multi-layered material, one atomic layer at a time.

This is important because large-area single-crystal sheet graphene is the leading candidate material for a space elevator tether. The tether would be manufactured by layering up sheets of graphene one atomic layer at a time with no other support material.

While this material is polycrystalline rather than single crystal, this proof-of-concept pellicle shows that large-area sheet graphene can be manufactured and layered up right now.

I hope you agree that when I use the term astonishing progress, this is not hyperbole, it just reflects the pace of development in this fast-moving world of 2D materials manufacturing.

References:

[1] Nixon, A., 2021. ISEC Newsletter, February 2021 edition: Industrially Manufactured Multi-layered Large-scale Sheet Graphene Samples are Sent to ISEC for Testing. [online] Available at: https://www.isec.org/space-elevator-newsletter-2021-february

[2] Yun, G., 2021. CHARMGRAPHENE "Development of graphene-based pellicle for EUV... Challenge for commercialization". [online] ETNEWS: Korea IT News. Available at: <https://english.etnews.com/20210802200002> [Accessed 22 September 2021].

[3] Nixon, A., 2021. ISEC Newsletter, August 2021 edition: Latest developments in manufacturing graphene. [online] Available at: Available at: https://www.isec.org/space-elevator-newsletter-2021-august

New Space Journal

Space Solar Power Enabled by Dual Space Access Architecture

Our Chief Architect just published an article in the New Space Journal that emphasized the future partnership between advanced rockets and Earth Space Elevators. The concept is simple, rockets move people and go to special orbits such as Low Earth Orbit. Space Elevators move massive amounts of cargo (170,000 tonnes per year to GEO and beyond once 3 Galactic Harbours mature into full operations) on the Green Road to Space. Future customers are already explaining the demands for cargo to be delivered: Elon Musk – 1,000,000 tonnes to Mars; Space Solar Power – 5,000,000 tonnes to GEO; and the Lunar Village about 500,000 tonnes to the surface of the Moon. One of the largest strengths of Earth Space Elevators is that they can deliver to lunar orbit about 70% of the mass at the ocean being lifted off (with the other 30% being reused as tether climbers). This is in contrast to the Apollo programs delivery of about 1% of the mass at Cape Canaveral to Lunar Orbit. This Dual Space Access Architecture will leverage the strengths of both and ensure the dreams of many can be fulfilled. The article [New Space Journal – VOL. 9 NO. 3 2021 NEW SPACE ] can be reached at: https://bit.ly/3lzNxCO]

History Corner

by David Raitt, PhD
ISEC Chief Historian

The Space Elevator History Committee
Active and Fun - Join us!

The vision of the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) is to have a world with inexpensive, safe, routine, Earth-friendly and efficient access to space for the benefit of all mankind. ISEC is made up of organizations and individuals from around the world who share this vision of mankind in space. In their desire to record the progress of space elevator thinking over time, a number of these individuals formed the ISEC History Committee, whose task includes archiving historical documents, interviewing key figures in space elevator development and publication of space elevator histories.

The History Committee’s ideas and discussions to date have culminated into four main activities: one - a book which attempts to document the history of the space elevator concept; two - oral interviews with major players, past and present, in space elevator research and development; three - a History Corner column in the ISEC Newsletter; and four - a Space Elevator History page on the ISEC website.

The definition of History is the study (and documenting) of past events relating to a particular person or thing. It is, of course, usually considered to be ‘old’, but, in fact, history is really anything before today! Hence the History Committee is continuing to document under the What's New section on the Space Elevator History page recent developments, publications, videos and events around the world as they relate to the space elevator with a view to bringing out a second edition of the space elevator history book.

The ISEC History Committee currently consists of the following active members: Douglas Ahlquist; A. J. Burke; Matthew Farrell (Chair); Bruce Mackenzie; David Raitt (ISEC Chief Historian); Evan Smith; and Peter Swan (ISEC President). Jerome Pearson, a long-time, active, regular attendee of the Committee, passed away early in 2021. Members of the History Committee exchange views regularly by email and also meet on the second Tuesday of every month in a Skype videoconference call. Other ISEC Members are always welcome to join. Please contact Matthew Farrell at mfarr002@odu.edu with your Skype ID to be added to the monthly call.

In 2017, the then History Committee completed the compilation of a history of the space elevator from 1895 to the present under the general editorship of David Raitt. Entitled, "The Space Elevator: A History", the book is laid out in ten chapters which are nearly chronological and the major topics are separated out such that the reader can look at the history in stages.   

In the effort to document the history of the space elevator, the History Committee believes it would be useful to capture the memories and recollections of especially those involved in the origin and development of the space elevator from the early beginnings. Accordingly, a list of potential individuals has been drawn up and they have been and are still being approached to see if they would be amenable to being interviewed. To date, transcripts of some 23 oral interviews have been made (seven of which are included in the History book) and a further eight are still awaiting transcripts. It is hoped that all these transcripts will be made available on the ISEC website.

The History Committee is also endeavouring to have occasional articles in the monthly issues of the ISEC Newsletter under the heading History Corner. While much of the text is extracted from throughout the Space Elevators: A History book, the material is reworked and consolidated in a different way that brings together diverse mentions and strands. The articles also try to incorporate new historical information that has recently come to light and which is thus not included in the current edition of the History book.

The Space Elevator History page on the ISEC website can be found at: https://www.isec.org/history.

2021 Space Renaissance Congress

Dual Space Access Strategy
Minimizes the Rocket Equation

As we look at the Moon and dream of spaceflight, again, we forget how extremely difficult it has been to accomplish. In the 70’s, Peter Glaser saw the future with power projected to the surface of the planet ensuring a cleaner environment. As we turn into the third decade of this century, Dr. Mankins’ SPS-ALPHA MK-llIA and Ian Cash’s CASSIOPeiA Space Solar Power (SSP) systems are remarkable solutions for global warming. The major problem in execution of this impactful constellation of satellites at Geosynchronous orbit is that their mass to orbit is enormous. To supply the needed power to slow or stop global warming would require in excess of 3,000,000 tonnes to GEO. This paper will show a complementary approach combining advanced rockets and space elevators to enable Space Solar Power missions in the next three decades. Space Elevators – the green road to space – will relieve the initial rocket delivery systems once the program has been demonstrated by taking on the “heavy lifting” to GEO. The rocket equation is dominate; and, it must be avoided to accomplish these monumental missions to improve the human condition. This paper will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the components of this combined architecture, including future reusable rockets and Space Elevators. Expanding space access architectures will enable a robust movement off- planet.

Paper to be published in “The Civilian Space Development” report of the Space Renaissance International 3rd World Congress 2021 – Congress Theses, Final Resolutions and Papers, editor: Adriano V. Autino. If you would like to know more about the Space Renaissance Congress, check out their website at: 2021 Space Renaissance – Expanding into Outer Space for saving Civilization. If you would like a copy of the article, please email pete.swan@isec.org.

Upcoming Events

The Modern Space Elevator: Ready to Initiate Development
Sponsored by the British Interplanetary Society (BIS)
https://www.bis-space.com/event/modern-space-elevator-ready-to-initiate-development/
Thursday, October 21st, 2021
Location: British Interplanetary Society
London, England

72nd International Astronautical Congress (IAC)

Sponsored by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF)
http://www.iafastro.org/events/iac/iac-2021/
Monday, October 25th through Friday, October 29th, 2021
Dubai World Trade Center
Dubai, UAE

Space Elevator Conference

Sponsored by the International Space Elevator Consortium
Topics: Tether/Climber interface & Environmental Benefits of Space Elevators
Coming in Spring of 2022
Location: TBD

International Space Development Conference (ISDC)

Sponsored by the National Space Society (NSS)
http://isdc2022.nss.org/
Friday, May 27th through Sunday, May 29th, 2022
Location: Hyatt Regency Crystal City
Arlington, VA

The ISDC is the annual conference of the National Space Society bringing together NSS leaders and members with leading managers, engineers, scientists, educators, and businessmen from civilian, military, commercial, entrepreneurial, and grassroots advocacy space sectors. Information about sponsorships, exhibiting, and volunteering is available at each year’s ISDC website.  For the last several years, ISEC has contributed a focus day on Space Elevators.  

73rd International Astronautical Congress 

Sponsored by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF)
https://www.iafastro.org/events/iac/iac-2022/
Sunday, September 18th through Thursday, September 22nd, 2022
Location: Paris, France

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