Editor's Note

As a non-profit, all volunteer organization we rely on people just like you to help us to reach our goal of building a "green road to space." Could you join a panel to contribute to an upcoming study? Or help with assembling and publishing the monthly newsletter? Could you organize the next ISEC conference? Can you create graphics for articles and publications? Can you help maintain our Social Media sites?

Our biggest need at this time is to keep the website current. This is so crucial that we are offering our first monthly paid internship for it (see article, below.)

I'm sure there are other ways you could help that we haven't even thought of yet! If you are interested in getting involved and becoming part of the team, contact us at info@isec.org. 

Sandee Schaeffer
Newsletter Editor

President's Corner

by Pete Swan

Special Thanks

Mission of outreach—the important role of sharing our knowledge and expertise with several communities is critical to our progress at so many levels. One critical “target for outreach” to help explain the remarkable progress of space elevator development is the space arena—specifically, technical conferences such as the National Space Society Space Development Conference and International Astronautical Federation’s IACs. Last month’s President’s Corner explained who has had their research (and associated papers) accepted for presentation in Paris. Our historic approach has been to describe our latest research and understanding at this huge (>9,000 attendees, over 5,000 papers accepted) yearly Congress as a way to reach out to our community of users and developers. This particular Congress is the “granddaddy” of all space conferences in that it is global, has “all” the space players in attendance, is mostly peer to peer level discussions, and affords us an opportunity to reach people and organizations not normally within our sphere of influence. By definition, this outreach is critical to the broad understanding of where space elevators fit within the global picture.

As such, I would like to provide “special thanks” to two of our ISEC members who exceeded their expected reach during the IAC. John Knapman not only developed a paper (and presentation) on his research (multi-stage) but supported Adrian Nixon by presenting that paper (current tether material candidates). This extra effort ensured that our critical understanding of the new two-dimensional material was shared across the space community. In addition, Peter Robinson had two papers submitted and accepted so he had two presentations to give during the space elevator session. His insight into the topics (atmospheric wind loading and climber dynamics) set the stage for more research with a clear starting point. Each deserves special thanks—and dinner—for their tremendous efforts supporting our outreach in Paris this year.

In addition, we definitely want to thank all authors who contributed their current research towards the broader understanding of space elevators from within ISEC. Their papers were well received and initiated discussions leading to (of course) more research. They were: Jerry Eddy (dual space access strategy), Michael Fitzgerald (new missions), and Bill Page (Interplanetary mission transformation). Each of these papers were presented and many questions responded to as the topics were timely and interesting.

On the academic front, there were two papers presented that dealt with research conducted within two college programs with ISEC. The masters level research was conducted by Danny Griffin (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden) on the topic of leveraging of the Apex Anchor for astronaut rescue within the CisLunar region. A Senior Honors research project at Arizona State University was presented by Gene Luevano on the topic of Direct Planetary Insertion Orbits from Space Elevators. Each of these presentations were well received and lead to questions about the progress of the topic.

I want to thank everyone who represented ISEC’s latest research with a paper. Each went through the troublesome process of early abstract (by February), paper submission, and then presentation charts prior to showing up. Through this process, our Consortium was well represented at one of the most remarkable Congresses in history. The topics were diverse; the attendees were attuned to the current state of the space arena and enjoyed sharing research (and stories of course) they were conducting. This sort of interchange can not be overvalued! We must continue to participate in these types of events while conducting our research and sharing our progress with communities of interest. Our outreach program needs concerted efforts similar to what we accomplished for this IAC. Ten of our active ISEC members have achieved a “high point” with their contributions to the knowledge base of ISEC as well as the progress of our development program. While being in Paris at this conference, we were able to see where other programs were and how they were progressing towards the remarkable future of movement off planet while, simultaneously saving our own planet. The next two events are:

  • International Space Development Conference, May 25-28, 2023, near Dallas Texas

  • 74th International Astronautical Congress: Baku Oct 2-6, 2023.

ISEC Intern Position—Website Support

The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) is looking for someone with web page design experience to upgrade the ISEC website. This is a continuing internship with a stipend of $200 per month and is open to anyone with an interest in space elevators.

The goals of this upgrade include:

  • Search engine optimization, increased hit rate, reduced bounce rate

  • Timely updating of content with exciting home page capturing visitors

The preferred candidate will:

  • Be familiar with SquareSpace

  • Be responsible for website upgrades and regular content updates

  • Have a good deal of latitude in design choices consistent with the above goals

  • Work with and be supported by the Office of the President.

ISEC needs someone who will take ownership of the site, improve it with knowledgeable approaches for better presentation and then ask for content from the many ISEC players. Candidates are encouraged to look over the website (www.isec.org) to get an idea of the ISEC purpose, goals and content.

Apply at info@isec.org

OUR MISSION: The International Space Elevator Consortium promotes the development, construction and operation of a Space Elevator Infrastructure as a revolutionary and efficient way to space for all humanity. It will be the Green Road to Space. ISEC is made up of individuals and organizations from all around the world who share a vision of mankind in space.

73rd International Astronautical Congress

Paris, France

The Space Elevator session at IAC-2022 in Paris was held September 19th, 2022, with 13 papers presented by eight speakers. Peter Swan opened with the Keynote inaugural “Jerome Pearson Memorial Lecture” followed by presentations by Yoji Ishikawa, John Knapman, Peter Robinson, Gene Luevano, Momoe Terata, Danny Griffin, and Francisco Salazar. (See the President's Corner above for more details.) The room was full; we could have had more audience but standing was not allowed, with latecomers watching proceedings on a screen outside the room.

Other commentators have mentioned that although the IAC-2022 total attendance was over 9,000 people from 110 countries with a tag-line of “Space for All,” there was no representation from Russia or China. We’re also aware that some Space Elevator enthusiasts from India and the Middle East were unable to obtain French visas. We hope that IAC-2023 in Baku, Azerbaijan (2-6 Oct 2023) will be even more international and that the Space Elevator session will be allocated an even larger room!

At the end of IAC-2022 the IAF announced details of IAC-2025, it will be held in Sydney, Australia, starting September 29th, 2025. We expect progress on the Space Elevator to have moved ahead significantly by then! All confirmed dates of future IAC and other events can be found on the ISEC website at www.isec.org/events and in the "Upcoming Events" section at the end of this newsletter.

Images of speakers at the event have been uploaded to our Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/isecdotorg/albums/72177720302497837.

If you attended IAC2022, the full set of material is available from the IAC website, but even if you weren’t there, it has all been loaded to the ISEC library on Zotero. You must be a member of ISEC to access this archive. Join here: https://www.isec.org/membership.

Stories from Space Podcast with Matthew S. Williams

Building An Elevator to Space!

Recently both Adrian Nixon and Peter Swan were interviewed by Matthew S. Williams within his “Stories from Space Podcast.”  This one was special as it focused upon the new two-dimensional material and the positive position that the space elevator development program is in. The interview was fun and the resulting podcast fairly represents where we are and where we are going. His executive summary on the website states: “The dream of a Space Elevator has been alive for over a century. Thanks to the discovery of graphene and new production processes, this dream could be on the verge of realization!”

Listen to the podcast here: https://itsprad.io/storiesfromspace-8

podcast

History Corner

by David Raitt, ISEC Chief Historian

Editor’s Note: This is the second part of a two-part article. For part one, see the September Newsletter.

Space Elevator Architectures
Part 2

The Fifth Architecture

With the advantage of ten years or so discussion about the space elevator’s development and feasibility at conferences, in scholarly journals, challenges and games, as well as lab work, the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) leveraged Edwards’ design to further improve the concept and establish new approaches. A five-year study first proposed to the IAA in 2009 by Dr Peter Swan and Dr David Raitt culminated in a report “Space Elevators: An Assessment of the Technological Feasibility and the Way Forward”

The report answered some basic questions about the feasibility of a space elevator infrastructure, namely: What was a space elevator? Why should it be developed? And, could it be done? Among the aspects considered in depth were the tether materials and climbers, as well as the end station infrastructure. Following a systems approach, the study looked into the dynamics and deployment of the tether, the systems design for the environment and space debris, and also the operations concept. It also examined architectural and policy implications—giving a roadmap for development, legal and regulatory frameworks, market projections, and the financial perspective.

As with earlier architectures, it was recognized that the whole project, especially the projected price per kilogram, was dependent upon a strong, lightweight material that would enable a 100,000km space elevator tether. The principal issue was the production of suitable material at the strength, length and perfection needed to achieve this. Almost all other issues surrounding each of the major segments had either been resolved in space before or were close to being space-ready.

The Sixth Architecture

In parallel to the IAA study, in 2011 the Obayashi Corporation in Japan assembled a project team to develop an innovative approach to space elevators. Starting with Brad Edwards’ design, they refined the concept from that initial set of assumptions and produced a Construction Concept in 2012. This effort was reinforced with more research and development on the topic being conducted as the concept was further developed. One of the significant points was to focus upon the cable dynamics and tether-climber interaction.

Regarding the design of the total space elevator architecture, the concept included resolving all necessary components including cable, stations, and climbers. The cable, made of carbon nanotubes, was to have a length of 96,000km with multiple locations along the tether. In their concept, Obayashi assumed the tensile strength of the cable to be 150GPa with a safety factor of two. The climber, which was not designed in detail in the study, was assumed to weigh 100 metric tons.

For the construction process, Obayashi basically followed Edwards but modified the details. The process mainly comprised the construction of the Earth Port, the cable, and the stations along the way. The construction of the cable includes the launch of an initial cable to GEO, the deployment of the cable from GEO to Earth, and the reinforcement of the cable with ascending climbers. Their analysis concluded that the reinforcement or thickening of the cable required 510 climbers and would take 18 years.

Obayashi estimated that operations would begin somewhere around 2050 with placement of the initial single string tether in the 2030 time period. The development time between those dates reflected the complexity of building up the tether cable design from the initially deployed cable. Basically, Obayashi’s set of assumptions for their study established stricter requirements and resulted in longer developments with increased payload capacity partly because their focus was movement of humans and massive loads to GEO and beyond.

The Seventh Architecture

“Road to Space Elevator Era,” a follow-on five-year IAA study started in 2014, was chaired by Akira Tsuchida and co-chaired by Dr Peter Swan and Dr David Raitt, had the goal of accomplishing the development of the unique space transportation system of the future.

It was the intention of the IAA Study Group to support any activities in connection with the topic of space elevators and to bring within the reach of every country the opportunity to understand the potential, the design approach, and the benefits/issues with a developmental program. The exploitation of space elevators to initiate space-based solar power was an initial focus that would demonstrate the possibilities available to humanity. The study leapt ahead of previous architectures to include: the functional requirements and technological needs of each major segment of the system; the critical technologies risk identification plus the validation and verification of those technologies; and solar energy to drive the tether climbers. It also recognized that the search for a tether material had moved on from carbon nanotubes towards new revolutionary two-dimensional materials such as single crystal graphene or boron nitride crystals. The study also introduced the concept of the Galactic Harbour, developed within the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC), as a growth to a future architecture.

The Galactic Harbour embraced the many independent space elevator segments previously identified that make up the concept (such as the Earth Port, Tether, Tether Climbers, GEO Node, Apex Anchor, Mars Gate and so on). In this new architecture, all these segments were named and defined in more detail. The Galactic Harbour itself is defined as continuous operations of the space elevator as the Galactic Harbour moves customer payloads on multiple space elevators from the entry ports (such as the Earth Port) to exit ports (such as the GEO node).

In essence, the Galactic Harbour is visualized as: an Earth Port at the bottom end of the tether with a complex of platforms performing different functions; two tethers going up from two Earth Port tether termini; an Apex Anchor—the smart counterweight at the far end (100,000km altitude) of each tether and used to control the dynamics of the tether termini; up to seven tether climbers on each tether below GEO—with three climbers beyond GEO going to the Apex Anchor or release point for Mars or the Moon; and GEO Node region centres—considered as free floating multi-purpose spaceports with multiple functions (such as refuelling/servicing/ construction, tug boats, power generation, communications, etc.) The Galactic Harbour is thus seen as the unification of transportation and enterprise, with businesses flourishing as the movement of goods becomes routine.

The Eighth Architecture

The idea of incorporating the Galactic Harbour into the space elevator architecture necessitated a re-evaluation of the overall strategy for bringing the space elevator to fruition. Hence the current thinking within the space elevator community is of a dual or combined architecture with rocketry to reduce the shortfalls of each by combining the strengths of each. Such a compatible Dual Space Access Architecture would enable human migration off-planet robustly and safely.

A space elevator has the tremendous ability to move massive payloads, daily, routinely, inexpensively, ecologically sound, and safely off-planet. Each of the major regions inside the “main channel” of the Galactic Harbour will expand as needed to handle this daily and massive core business, i.e., the transportation of goods. Hitherto, the assumption has been that the space elevator would obviate the need for rockets; however, now that plans are afoot to go back to the Moon and on to Mars, we need to expand our vision of how we do this.

There is little doubt that polluting rockets will fall short and not be up to the expected demand for millions of tonnes of materials delivered to space for Mars colonies, Moon Villages, and solar powered satellites. Given the current launch capacities of rockets and the number of launches able to be undertaken per day and taking into account the available launch windows, it would likely take well over 100 years at best and require some 200,000 launches through the atmosphere just to fulfill Elon Musk’s goal of a Mars colony. It would thus seem that the establishment of a more robust infrastructure with reusable rockets and permanent space elevators must be developed.

The unique characteristics of space elevators enable remarkable opportunities for off-planet missions. This combination of three major strengths (massive movement of mission support equipment, a tremendous opening up of launch windows, and far shorter travel times) would ensure constant support to missions beyond geosynchronous altitude. The daily release of payloads towards Mars and other interplanetary destinations from the Apex Anchor imparts tremendous velocity with very little drag from Earth's gravity. All this points to the advantages of having a Dual Space Access Architecture—using the strengths of both parts (rockets and space elevators) of this architecture enables so much more than the individual parts or segments.

Conclusion

Within the concept of a space elevator there have been eight essentially different architectures to date—each adding a bit more to the one before. There have often been lengthy gaps between each architecture, and it is only with hindsight that we can see these and understand that the first four were the ideas of just a single person. And indeed, although the other architectures combined input from a number of individuals, communities, and organizations, they were initially largely conceived by just a couple of people. The next architecture will not be too far away!

Tether Materials

by Adrian Nixon, Board Member, ISEC

Borophene

Several of our regular readers asked me about a new two-dimensional (2D) material called Borophene.  This material was purely theoretical until researchers at Rice and Northwestern Universities in the USA made samples of the material last year.  I was asked “could this be a candidate material for the space elevator tether?”

Borophene is the name given to a new material that is analogous to graphene. Graphene is made from carbon, borophene is made from boron atoms.

Borophene

Figure 1: Borophene

Figure 1 shows the structure of borophene. The single atomic layer of the material is shown in contrast with the layer below slightly greyed out. 

The researchers in the USA made this new material in the laboratory using a technique called molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).  MBE sounds like science fiction, in fact it is a well established process used in the semiconductor industry to manufacture electronic devices as thin films of single crystals.  Molecular beam refers to the vapour of material used to lay down the layers, it is called a beam because the individual atoms or molecules do not interact with one another as they travel from the source to the destination. Epitaxy for our purposes means making something as a thin single crystal layer on a surface.

The borophene was made in the laboratory using the MBE method to create a bilayer of material on highly polished, pure layer of silver metal. Once the surface was covered with random domains of borophene they found they could grow a second layer on top of the first. 

The researchers made enough of the material to explore some of its properties. The team were focussed on the electronic properties of borophene for superconductivity applications.  However, the material is inherently unstable in ambient conditions and oxidises readily in air.  Bi-layer borophene does not improve the oxidative stability. 

This means that borophene will react with oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere and a tether made from this material would rapidly be destroyed.  However, this would not be a problem in the vacuum of space, so might we consider this material as a candidate for a Moon or Mars tether?

To answer that question, we need to understand the strength of the material.  We know that a tether material has to withstand huge strains.  It needs a tensile strength of 60 Gigapascals (GPa) or more.

The researchers in the USA did not make enough borophene to perform these tensile strength tests.  However, this work has been done theoretically. A team at the institute of Structural Mechanics, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, in Germany has calculated the strength of borophene from first principles.  They have found that several variations of the 2d structure are possible, and these have ultimate tensile strengths in the range of 13.5 to 22.8 GPa.

So, we can now answer the question “is borophene a candidate tether material?”

The answer is clear. ‘No’.  Firstly, the material is quite reactive in the presence of oxygen and a tether made from borophene would be destroyed by the Earth’s atmosphere.  Secondly borophene is not a strong enough material to form a tether.  It would snap under the strain.

Having said all that, borophene has now been made in the laboratory and it has moved from the theoretical to the possible.  As we develop more technology for the vacuum of space, we should not dismiss materials just because they react with oxygen.  There could be myriad uses for novel materials as we become a space faring society enabled by the space elevator.

References:

1. Liu, X., Li, Q., Ruan, Q. et al. (2021) “Borophene synthesis beyond the single-atomic-layer limit.” Nat. Mater.

2. Mortazavi, B., Rahaman, O., Dianat, A. and Rabczuk, T., 2016. Mechanical responses of borophene sheets: a first-principles study. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 18(39), pp.27405-27413.

Upcoming Events

World Space Week (Going on now!)

Sponsored by the British Interplanetary Society
https://www.bis-space.com/events/wsw/
Tuesday, October 4th through Saturday, October 10th, 2022
This year’s theme is “Space and Sustainability”

World Space Week consists of space education and outreach events held by space agencies, aerospace companies, schools, STEM clubs, science centres, planetaria, museums, and astronomy clubs around the world. World Space Week events also include ANY SPACE-RELATED activities being held by local communities, groups, home-schooling, and even families, between 4-10 October.

An in-person exhibitor event will be held Saturday, October 8th
The Hive Library
Worcester, UK

International Space Development Conference

Sponsored by the National Space Society
https://isdc2023.nss.org/
May 25th through May 28th, 2023
Dallas-Frisco, Texas, USA
Theme: A New Space Age

74th International Astronautical Congress

Sponsored by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF)
https://www.iafastro.org/events/iac/iac-2023/
Theme: “Global Challenges and Opportunities: Give Space a Chance”
Monday, October 2nd through Friday, October 6th, 2023
Baku, Azerbaijan

75th International Astronautical Congress

Sponsored by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF)
Announcement:
https://www.iafastro.org/events/iac/international-astronautical-congress-2024/
Theme: “Responsible Space for Sustainability”
Monday, October 14th through Friday, October 18th, 2024
Milan, Italy

76th International Astronautical Congress

Sponsored by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF)
Monday, September 29th through Friday, October 3rd, 2025
Sydney, Australia

About Us:

The International Space Elevator Consortium is registered as a non-profit organization through the state of California (CA Entity # is C3167479) and is federally registered as a 501c3 (EIN 80-0302896.) 

Our Vision: Space Elevators are the Green Road to Space while they enable humanity's most important missions by moving massive tonnage to GEO and beyond.

Our mission statement: The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) promotes the development, construction and operation of a Space Elevator (SE) Infrastructure as a revolutionary and efficient way to space for all humanity. ISEC is made up of individuals and organizations from all around the world who share a vision of mankind in space.

Contact Us:

You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

Our website is www.isec.org.

Support us:

Sign up to be a member at: https://www.isec.org/membership

You could volunteer to assist with any number of activities...let us know where you would like to help!

You can also give directly using the “Donate” link at the bottom of our website page.

Our unique charity link for Amazon Smile is https://smile.amazon.com/ch/80-0302896.

Does your place of employment provide matching funds for donations or volunteer time through Benevity? If so, you can make ISEC your recipient!