06/12/2010
Alt energy enthusiasts have talked about harnessing powerful winds from the troposphere since the 1970s, but technological limits made it seem like a distant dream. Well, it's 2010, and the future has arrived. Airborne wind turbine prototypes are finally taking flight. WIDE ANGLE: Get all the latest news and information about wind power. At high altitudes, global winds have an estimated potential of 800 terawatts. With an eye on that prize, Santa Cruz, California-based company Joby Energy has been busy testing prototypes of its turbines. The current prototype is a 30-kilowatt system that loo
05/28/2010
When I tell molecular biophysicist Deane Little that I'm extremely skeptical about carbon capture and sequestration, he looks up from the solar-powered chemical reactor he's just set up in the window and responds, "We are, too." For Little and his colleagues at New Sky Energy, successfully capturing carbon from the air doesn't involve a giant fake tree or pumping huge amounts of CO2 into the ground. Instead, they've developed a chemical system that elegantly turns CO2 and salt solution into valuable products.Little, who is New Sky's CEO and chief scientific officer, walks me through their tech
05/26/2010
The frozen death of the perky Mars Phoenix Lander as reported by my colleague Ian O’Neill makes me feel like I've lost a friend. Through 2008 I had fun reporting on the lander’s achievements for Discovery News -- most notably the detection of water ice and perchlorates. Given these two findings, Martian microbes may have been literally inches beneath the lander’s feet. SLIDE SHOW: Phoenix Mars Lander's First Images Unlike the Antarctic expeditions of a century ago, it was only a machine that succumbed to a harsh polar winter, and not humans. But we can't resist anthropomorphizing thes
05/17/2010
The 2010 Space Elevator Conference is a three-day conference to be held in once again in Redmond, Washington at the Microsoft Conference Center on August 13-15, 2010. The conference, focusing on all aspects of Space Elevator development, will engage an international audience of scientists, engineers, educators, managers, entrepreneurs, enthusiasts and students. Registration is now open.
05/17/2010
Call for Papers for the 2011 Space Elevator Conference The theme of the 2011 Space Elevator Conference is: Developing Stronger, Lighter Tethers - "30 MYuri or Bust" and seems… By Marc Boucher | Comments (0) ISEC Releases its First Position Paper The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) has released its first position paper titled Space Elevator Survivability Space Debris Mitigation in… By Marc Boucher | Comments (0) 61th International Astronautical Congr
04/29/2010
<Posted by tourdemars to Humans To Mars at April 29, 2010 09:15 AM Topics: Human spaceflight, US space policy, Mars. Dr. Robert Zubrin was our guest for this non-stop two hour program to discuss the proposed changes in US space policy and why having a destination is so important for our national space program. For more information, visit The Mars Society website at www.marssociety.org. Note the coming Mars Society Conference which Dr. Zubrin told us about, scheduled for Dayton, Ohio from August 5-8, 2010. Dr. Zubrin started our discussion saying that we could go to Mars in about ten years
03/22/2010
<SpaceRef - Space News as it Happens · About Us · Advertising · Contact Us · Comments Tuesday, March 23, 2010 Select a Site ----------- SpaceRef Home » SpaceRef Store » Calendar of Events » Columbia Special » News Releases » Photo Gallery » Status Reports » Space Station » Space Weather ----------- » Commercial Space » SpaceRef Asia » SpaceRef Canada » SpaceRef Europe » Mercury Today » Venus Today » Earth Today » Moon Today » Mars Today » Mars TV » Jupiter Today » Saturn Today »&nbs
03/22/2010
International Space Elevator Consortium Announces First Annual Set of Prizes [www.azonano.com]
03/21/2010
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01/20/2012
11/18/2011
From the New York Times comes a story on Google's X lab where top secret Google projects of the future are being researched. These are blue sky ideas that might some day pan out. One of the ideas being bandied about? The Space Elevator. From the story Google's Lab of Wildest Dreams "At Google, which uses artificial intelligence techniques and machine learning in its search algorithm, some of the outlandish projects may not be as much of a stretch as they first appear, even though they defy the bounds of the company's main Web search business. For example, space elevators, a longtime fantasy of Google's founders and other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, could collect information or haul things into space. (In theory, they involve rocketless space travel along a cable anchored to Earth.) "Google is collecting the world's data, so now it could be collecting the solar system's data," Mr. Brooks said." 07/26/2011
Recently The Daily Show contacted me as they wanted to do a piece on the Space Elevator after the last shuttle program ended. I put them in touch with Brad Edwards and Ben Shelef. The result is the following video with renowned physicist Michio Kaku where he discusses the space elevator and how it could economically lift cargo and humans into space by the end of the century. 05/12/2011
The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) is now accepting submissions for the 2012 Space Elevator Journal. As with the Call for Papers for the Space Elevator Conference, papers on "Strong Tethers" are encouraged while papers on any other subject relevant to a Space Elevator are also encouraged. Details are available on the journal from the ISEC web site. 05/12/2011
The NASA Strong Tether competition will be held on Friday, August 12th at the annual Space Elevator Conference being held at the Microsoft Conference Centre in Redmond, Washington. As part of its Centennial Challenges program, NASA has put up a $2 Million prize purse for tethers that can meet certain specific strength benchmarks. To this point no one has been able to win this prize. Could this years competition be the year someone wins? The rules for the competition can be found at the Spaceward Foundation website who manage the competition while more information about the NASA Centennial Challenges program is available here. 05/12/2011
The European Spaceward Association has made available a summary report from the recent 4th Luxembourg Carbon Nanotechnology and Space Elevator Systems as well as the book of abstracts. "In his introductory address Markus Klettner, Executive Director of EuroSpaceward, pointed out the strategic focus of the year 2010 conference on carbon nanotechnology in order to boost an envisaged research project between Luxembourg laboratories and international partners on the growth of ultra-long CNT fibers that possess at the same time ultrahigh tensile strength. He emphasized the need to further advance the development of high strength macroscopic CNT fibers by focussing on the vital aspects: growing long CNTs as well as aligning and fostering international research work on mechanical properties of CNT fibers." Download the summary report. (PDF) Download the book of abstracts, part 1 (PDF), part 2 (PDF). 05/12/2011
The Space Engineering and Science Institute (SESI) has put out its annual call for papers for this years 2011 Space Elevator Conference once again being held at the Microsoft Convention Center in Redmond Washington between August 12th - 14th. Abstracts are due by June 11, 2011. Abstracts must be in English, one page or less, and summarize a presentation suitable for the conference. For all submittals, please include the title, authors and affiliations, mail address, e-mail, and phone number of the corresponding author, and up to 10 key words. Authors will be notified of acceptance by June 20th, 2011. Final drafts of the presentations in PowerPoint or PDF formats will be due before the conference on July 22, 2011. Submit your abstracts and papers to the Paper Submission Site. 05/12/2011
The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) is now accepting entries for the 2011 Artsutanov and Pearson Prizes. Two prizes will be awarded, $1,500 and $2,500 respectively for the best papers. The deadline for submission is June 30. "The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) Board of Directors has announced their official theme for 2011, tether development, as a way to focus the Space Elevator on the most important problem facing the construction of a Space Elevator. Tether strength is the Achilles Heel of a Space Elevator due to the fact that no materials currently exist with a high enough strength to weight ratio to build the 100,000 km long tether which is central to the elevator. In honor of Yuri Artsutanov, the Russian physicist who first thought of the idea of a Space Elevator, ISEC has adopted the measurement of Yuris1 when discussing the specific strength of tether materials. So how strong does the material have to be? The Space Elevator Feasibility Condition written by Ben Shelef of the Spaceward Foundation shows that a strength of approximately 30 MYuris would be required for a working Space Elevator. For reference, the specific strength of steel is about .5 MYuris. Though there are many high strength materials used around the world, ongoing research points to carbon nano-tubes (CNTs) as being the strongest candidates for success. To encourage research in this field, the ISEC 2011 Artsutanov and Pearson prizes will both be awarded for the papers that advance the development of 30 MYuri tether. Papers will be judged by the level to which their ideas advance the field, research and data in support of conclusions are expected. The winners of each prize are awarded $1,500 and $2,500 respectively and the papers will be featured at the 2011 Space Elevator Conference. The Pearson prize is open to undergraduate students while the Artsutanov prize is open to all2. The deadline for submitting entries will be June 30, 2011. Specific contest rules and other information about the prizes can be found on the ISEC website (http://www.isec.info) 1 A Yuri is equivalent to 1 Pascal per kilogram per cubic meter. A Mega Yuri (MYuri) is equivalent to the commonly used units of 1 Giga-Pascal per gram per cubic centimeter (1 GPa-g/cc) and to 1 Newton per Tex (N/Tex). 2 Officers and Directors of ISEC are not eligible." 02/16/2011
"The International Space Elevator Consortium has placed this position paper as a recognition that the space debris problem is an engineering one and can be mitigated. The question: "Will space debris be a show stopper for space elevators?" is answered emphatically. NO! The mitigation concepts presented change the issue from a perceived problem to an engineering concern; but, by no means is it a significant threat. This pamphlet illustrates how the development office for a future space elevator can attack this problem, predict probabilities of collision, and convert the concern into another manageable engineering problem." Issues addressed in the report include; - The probabilities of collision in low earth orbit, in geosynchronous earth orbit, and in medium earth orbit. - The growth rate as it threatens an operational space elevator. - A reasonable approach for space elevator developers to ensure infrastructure safety. - Approaches to interrupt sources of debris. - Mitigation of risk for the space elevator community through design, operations, policiesm and lowering the threat. The report is available as a paperback for $14.50 or you can download it in PDF format for $5.99. In a related news item, it was just a couple of weeks ago that news surfaced that the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was to team up with a fishing company to address the debris problem in a unique way. - Japan's space agency teams up with fishing net maker to collect space debris 02/15/2011
- Preliminary Systems Requirements for the Space Toilet on the Space Train (Paper) (Presentation), Mr. Akira Tsuchida, Earth-Track Corporation, Ms. Amie Allison, Earth-Track Corporation, Mr. Koo Ue, Japan Toilet Labo. - Tether assisted near earth object (neo) diversion (Paper) (Presentation), Mr. Mohammad J. Mashayekhi, McGill University, Prof. Arun Misra, McGill University - Light and strong cnt fiber spun with cnt web (Paper), Dr. Morihiro Okada, Shizuoka University, Prof. Yoku Inoue, Shizuoka University, Prof. Akihiro Ishida, Shizuoka University, Prof. Hidenori Mimura, Shizuoka University - Wireless Power Transfer to a Moving Vehicle: Explorations with the Kansas City team for the NASA/Spaceward power beaming challenge (Paper) (Presentation), Dr. Martin Lades - The Effect of Disturbances on Space Elevator Dynamics with Flexibility (Paper), Mr. Ryotaro Ohkawa, Nihon University, Prof. Hironori A. Fujii, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Prof. Kenji Uchiyama, Nihon University - Numerical dynamics and stability study for twin tethered objects (Abstract), Prof. Radu Rugescu, Politechnic University of Bucharest - Geostationary Station Keeping Control of a Space Elevator during Initial Cable Deployment (Paper), Dr. Noboru TAKEICHI, Nagoya University - Space Elevator Road Map 2010 (Paper) (Presentation), Mr. Akira Tsuchida, Earth-Track Corporation, Ms. Amie Allison, Earth-Track Corporation - Comfortableness in Space Elevator -- Physiological Challenge (Abstract), Prof. Satoshi Iwase, Aichi Medical University - First Space Elevator: on the Moon, Mars or the Earth? (Paper) (Presentation), Dr. Peter A. Swan, Teaching Science and Technology, Inc.
10/14/2010
The conference is split into two 1 day sessions. The first day is dedicated to Space Elevator Systems while the second day is dedicated to Carbon Nanotechnology. The Space Elevator Systems sessions will focus on the scientific and technical aspects of the space elevator systems as well legal issues, international policy, ongoing research, economics and engineering contests. The Carbon Nanotechnology sessions will focus the status of ongoing research including carbon nanotube growth technologies relevant to space elevator systems, power transmission, energy conversion and the economics and environmental impacts. 08/01/2010
This years Space Elevator Conference being held at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington will begin on Friday, August 13th and run through Sunday August 15th. A free public lecture by Dr. Bryan Laubscher will precede the conference on Thursday, August 12, 2010 between 7pm - 8pm. The Space Elevator is a radical new way to access space less expensively than possible with chemical rocket technology. The technology offers solutions to many of the problems facing communities today, including but not limited to the need for clean, renewable energy. The Space Elevator uses a carbon nanotube ribbon that stretches from the surface of the earth to a counterweight in space. Climbers ascend the ribbon lifting cargo and passengers to earth orbits and launching spacecraft to distant planets. Registration for the conference is still open. |
At the 
The European Spaceward Association will host the
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