Editor’s Note

Dear Fellow Space Elevator enthusiast,

In this edition, there is another Architecture Note and exciting news about this year's Research focus, as well as an introduction to the Omaha Trail we learned about at the Aug 2017 conference. We also have a story about high school students embracing the space elevator concept. There are also some exciting upcoming Space Elevator related events around the world that you will want to check out.  Thank you for reading and lending your support in the development of Space Elevators!

As always, you will find notices of several open volunteer positions (a great way to help this project, even if you’re not a scientist or engineer) and a reminder that all ISEC reports are available FOR FREE in electronic (pdf) format at ISEC.org. There is plenty of work to be done!

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,

Mark Dodrill
ISEC Webmaster

President’s Corner

A New Year’s Thrust

by Pete Swan

This year will be special [oops I say that each year] as we have many activities already planned – each with their own excitement and expectations. As we move forward, we are hoping to significantly increase the Body of Knowledge to that magic level where someone will start funding the research and then the project of space elevators. Yes, we all have hope and expectations as we go forward. As of this President’s Corner, we have the following “big events” planned with the expectation of several smaller events occurring along the way:

  • ISEC Conference [Aug23-26 Seattle]: this is our best and brightest event where we sponsor the activities and hope to have a diverse set of presenters and participants.

  • International Space Development Conference [May 24-28 Los Angeles]: This is the yearly conference for the National Space Society’s Conference where we will have a three hour “track” on space Elevators. 40% of attendees are students and teachers.

  • International Astronautical Federation Congress [Oct 1-5 Bremen Germany]: Historically, ISEC has worked within the structure to have a session [sometimes multiple] on space elevators. This year’s focus will the be culmination of the International Academy of Astronautics 4-year study entitled “The Road to the Space Elevator Era.”

  • British Interplanetary Society’s West Midland Branch [Mar 24 Droitwich]: Peter Robinson will be there and will ensure the topic of space elevators will surface.

  • Symposium on Lift (Elevator) and Escalator Technologies [Sept 19-20 Northampton]: Bryan Laubscher will be presenting.

  • Multiple visits to schools and colleges by our team [invite us – we love to motivate the youth towards space]

In addition, we have one year long study in Peer Review – “Design Considerations for a Software Space Elevator Simulator.” Of course this report will be available at the conference in August. The 2018 initiated study has been drafted in preliminary form and is looking at the “Multi-Stage Space Elevator.” This study activity will lead to a mini-workshop at the conference and a study report during the spring of 2019.

Keep Climbing my Friends,
Pete Swan

Architect’s View

The REAR View & the Horizon View of the Galactic Harbour

by Michael A. Fitzgerald

The Rear View – Achievements of 2017

The International Space Elevator Consortium met in Seattle at Boeing’s Museum of Flight for its 2017 Conference. The conference was fun and the presentations were fantastic. The ISEC Board and Conference attendees openly embraced the changes dictated by our maturing thoughts about a Space Elevator; as a transportation force in the future, as an enabler of robust space-based enterprise, and as the initial infrastructure of the 3rd dimension of Earth’s transportation and logistics system. This triad of featured attributes is captured by ISEC’s portrayal of the Space Elevator Architecture as the Galactic Harbour… where transportation and business will meet.

The Horizon View – Expectations for 2018

Our major objective for 2018 will be to improve the descriptions and portrayals of what we now see; to reach the broader audience. We envision large regions in space dedicated to operating the revolutionary space access transportation system. Businesses will flourish, satellites will be repaired and refueled, power generation systems will be assembled, and interplanetary journeys will be launched. In 2018, we will define how can we manage all the elements of the Galactic Harbour– safely and efficiently. We will portray this robust, amalgam of transportation and enterprise to attract investors, partners, educators, and supporters. Our Kickstarter fund raising effort will attract attention. The audience must like what they see and want to join in. They must see the same Horizon we do.

Michael A. Fitzgerald
Chief Architect

Space Elevator Research

by John Knapman

ISEC’s 2018 report will be on the multi-stage space elevator. This approach to designing and building a space elevator breaks the materials log jam, because it can be built with today’s materials. As new, stronger materials become available they can be used to improve and simplify it by reducing the number of stages. In the meantime, we can make progress on prototyping small components. A key feature of the design is the use of many small identical components that can be mass produced at low cost. Furthermore, they can be miniaturized using integrated circuits on chips, reducing the size of the support infrastructure needed on Earth to hundreds of meters rather than thousands.

A key aim in publishing this report will be to encourage other groups around the world to work on their own versions of these proposals. All ISEC material is in the public domain. There are no proprietary rights or restrictions.

Architecture Note #15

The Galactic Harbour’s Full Operational Capability

by Michael A. Fitzgerald

Personal Prolog

This is an Architecture Note. It is the opinion of ISEC’s Chief Architect. It represents an effort to document ISEC’s ongoing science and engineering discussions, and is one of many to be published over time. Most importantly, it is a sincere effort to be the diary, or the chronicle, of the multitude of our technical considerations as we progress; along the pathway developing the Space Elevator.

The Galactic Harbour’s Full Operational Capability…a muse or amusing?

Introduction

It is a classic scene. The youngster is sitting in the back seat, breathing in huffs and puffs, and pondering how to escape the prison of the seat belt. Finally, - wait for it – the youngster offers, in a high-pitched whine; “Are we there yet”? The driver responds, portraying undue patience and wisdom; “We will be there before you know it”. The fact that they were barely to the freeway was a fact that need not be mentioned. Mentioning that would only bring a minor amount of despair to the youngster. The truth was that we would get there when we get there; what with traffic and all.

Last week, I had a parallel thing. I was asked about when the Space Elevator would reach FOC and does it really need “person rated facilities”. I wanted to respond like the driver in the car, but, we are faced with the same truth the youngster was going to deal with. That is, we will reach FOC when we reach FOC. Something about that answer – as truthful as it is – had me pondering.

Let’s form a better answer

First, let us recall our definition of FOC in terms of a development phase. The Full Operational Capability (FOC) is achieved after Initial Operational Capability (IOC) is achieved AND after adding some functions to the Space Elevator via Step 7 in the Sequences; the On-Ramp Step. For those new to the game, “Sequences“ are the 8 steps we intend to go through to attain an operational Space Elevator:

Space Elevator Developmental Phases

The Sequences:

  1. Pathfinder

  2. Seed Tether,

  3. Single String Testing

  4. Operational Testing,

  5. Limited Operational Capability (LOC),

  6. Initial Operational Capability (IOC),

  7. Capability On-Ramps leading to FOC

  8. Full Operational Capability (FOC)

In practice, the On-Ramp Development Phase is --> add More functions; --> improve with Better functions ; and then --> grow with New functions. In every sense of truth, phase 7 and 8 continue and continue. At some point the practicalities force a decision. Should we continue adding More/Better/New functions to this elevator; or go make another elevator or two? (See Graphic) As the wise driver would say: Maybe. “We will be there before you know it”.

Even now, ISEC is having discussions about the long-term future. Those discussions first led us to define our Architecture in a bi-modular fashion. Our Architecture is composed of a Space Elevator Transportation System and a Space Elevator Enterprise System unified within a Galactic Harbour. As that vision matures, we are now seeing the SE Transportation System serving enterprises akin to those satellite missions now operational along the Geosynchronous Belt.

We see that Architecture growing via the On-Ramp activities; --> More/ Better/ New functions. From these, we see a drive to have the SE Transportation System support other enterprise domains; solar power production, construction, research, tourism, and more.

The early SE Transportation System and SE Enterprise System will be operated robotically. We expect robotic functionality to improve remarkably over the coming decades. But eventually, the SE Enterprise System will need human experience, skills, or wisdom on-orbit. Perhaps at the GEO Node. Perhaps at the Apex Anchor. But When?

Let’s ask the wise driver. “Are we there yet”? … portraying undue patience and wisdom; “We will be there before you know it.

In closing

So, Are we there yet? Do we need “person rated” facilities on the Galactic Harbour? --> Yup,

Fitzer

family of elevators

The Omaha Trail

A system for high-efficiency transport between Earth and Mars

Collaboration between the Lake Matthew Team (LMT) and ISEC director M. Lades

Introduction

Mars is popular as a new frontier destination for humanity, thanks to SpaceX initiatives and other private enterprises. Governments are finally starting to move on plans that were delayed when NERVA rockets proven on the test stand never flew and a manned Mars program was never implemented in the 1970s. This newsletter brings to you a proposed integrated framework of independently valuable infrastructure components to support Mars efforts. We call our framework the Omaha Trail. Just like the US transcontinental railroads, constructed during the time of the civil war, such infrastructure requires investments, but it can pay high dividends, especially in a time of strategic need. The interested reader can find a starting point for more information in the LMT press release of September 18 2017.

The remainder of this article sketches Omaha Trail components for facilitated access to a proposed Mars settlement site. A hub on the second Mars moon, Deimos, with Deimos Dock and a Rail Launcher, is essential. The architecture is completed with an elevator-type drop line from space, the Mars Lift, and a surface Tramway from the Mars Lift ground station to the settlement site

Omaha Trail

Fig. 1: Omaha Trail at Deimos, with Deimos Dock, Deimos Rail Launcher, and Mars Lift. Image Credit: Lake Matthew Team / Celestia.

Lake Matthew

Global terraforming concepts for Mars exist and examples can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming_of_Mars. However, their impact is unclear, when unique resources, only available once, are wasted when the planet relapses to a desert state. The Lake Matthew plan is different. It proposes local terraforming, releasing on Mars new bridgehead resources and promising a few thousand years of bedrock heat for Lake Matthew, and for settlement. Sustainability is the key. TRL levels seem viable, and the mission timeframe calls for a start of surface operations in 2036.

In our collaboration on the Omaha Trail we overlaid a new framework onto the Lake Matthew plan to facilitate transport to and from Mars, with the primary destination being the settlement site at Lake Matthew.

Deimos Dock and Deimos Rail Launcher

Deimos, while only a small rock on the planetary scale, promises the key to better Mars access. In a first step, we propose a docking station on Deimos supported by solar power photovoltaics (PV) and an ISRU mining operation, to manufacture propellant, water, simple compressed materials for shielding and weights, and possibly more. A suggested distribution of photovoltaics (PV), mining, and dock facilities was given at the Space Elevator conference in August 2017.

Propellant from Deimos has value superior to propellant from Mars due to its location near the edge of the Mars gravity well. Also, Deimos' local gravity is only 0.0025 m/s2, a quarter permille of Earth. The gravity pull of 100 kg on Earth reduces to the equivalent of only 26 g on Deimos, making docking cheap. SpaceX ITS transports traveling to and from Mars can refuel at Deimos Dock with little effort, reducing the load of propellant required to be carried to and from the planet, and making transfers more efficient. While we used the best volatile prospecting data for volatiles available, in situ tests on Deimos are recommended as a priority for Mars programs.

In a second step the docking port on Deimos will be extended. The cold of space offers interesting perspectives for superconductors. It makes superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) viable with reduced containment, and much reduced mass, compared to Earth. We propose a Deimos Rail Launcher (DRL) facility that uses such SMES storage as an energy reservoir. SMES and direct PV provide vessels a Δv of up to 1 km/s over DRL tensioned wire rails, with low g-forces. The DRL makes several destinations directly accessible, e.g., the Mars periapsis as decision point to go to Earth or Mars, and the top of a Mars elevator just inside the Deimos orbit, the Arestation of our proposed Mars Lift.

Mars Lift and Tramway

Space elevators list among their main benefits benign access to orbit, without exposure to the violent power and vibration of rocket engines, and scalability. However, climbing also requires high power density on a climber to drive it. The established feasibility condition for Earth maps out a relationship between the power density of the driving infrastructure of a climber, tether strength, and house-keeping operations of a space elevator. Climber power density includes in that case both components of the drive system, the motor and either a solar or power beaming receiver array.

Our Mars Lift uses the space elevator as a simple drop line that requires minimal auxiliary engines on a climber to start the drop, and uses eddy-current brakes with sufficient heat radiators to limit the maximum climber speed to around 300 km/h. A final Joule-braking step is only required at the bottom of the tether. The basic Mars Lift concept is therefore a descending vehicle, called a rappeller. It uses standardized containers that lock into the rappeller frame. Empty rappellers and containers are shuttled back to the Arestation via return ITS rocket. The Mars Lift saves propellant that would otherwise be used to land the payload on Mars.

When augmented with propellant manufactured on Deimos, the Mars Lift can reduce overall propellant requirement for cargo flights by about 70%, and cut the number of required Earth booster launches by a similar percentage.

cargo flight staging

Fig. 2. Schematic of cargo flight staging (2,3,5). Deimos propellant (1,3,5). Mars Lift space elevator descend line in gold (5). Image credit: Lake Matthew Team.

We scaled the tether significantly larger than the minimum safety factors typical for other space elevator concepts to address concerns about climber grip and the additional pull of the off-equator elevator.

What about a Phobos drop tether instead of the Deimos configuration? Mars is not an easy landing site, with only 0.6 % atmospheric density of Earth, as concepts with sky-cranes and supersonic parachutes with ~20 m diameter for approximately one metric ton of payload for the Curiosity rover demonstrate. There will be no aerodynamic supersonic airplanes with high payloads on Mars. Even a drop from 100 km altitude still requires approximately 1/3 of the dropped mass as fuel/engine for proper braking. The terminal velocity in the atmosphere approximates 1000 km/h. The Mars atmosphere is just dense enough to be annoying without being useful. The issues of braking in the Martian atmosphere and the high projected ground speed of Phobos drop made us forego the concept of a drop tether. We chose instead an elevator from the Martian surface to beyond areostatic-orbit, the equivalent of geostationary-orbit, terminating about 100 km below Deimos orbit.

Phobos avoidance is the next step to clear for a Mars elevator. Oscillating elevators were the solution proposed by A.C. Clarke in the Fountains of Paradise. Induced oscillations are interesting as obstacle avoidance mechanism. We preferred instead a steady state solution as a baseline that requires no additional input of energy, i.e., an off-equator elevator. We followed the paradigms of Levin and Gassend for our investigations of several scenarios: two sites were modeled, at ~12.65 degrees and 18 degrees South, with 10 MYuri and 20 MYuri tethers. All investigated baselines, without additional loading by climbers, cleared Phobos comfortably, including sufficient clearance for known variations in its orbit, see presentation for 2017 SEC.

Once on the ground, we use elevator-strength cables to establish a horizontal tramway following the concepts of Pearson’s Lunar tramway. Elevator-strength material permits cable spans with minimal sag over tens of kilometers, requiring minimal infrastructure compared to a railroad. The rappellers are converted to trammers for powered horizontal transport.

Open items are the hazards of Martian dust and the electric properties of the Martian atmosphere. Global dust storms are reported to reach up to 80-100 km above the planet. Even the high mountains on Mars cannot escape these storms. Also, atmospheric conductivity is significantly higher than on Earth, with many discharges. Clearly a Mars tether has to be well protected. On the positive side the energy of the drop could also be converted to augment or service the tether. For example, DC current from the rappeller could be tapped to remove an expected ice hazard: creating a Joule-heating circuit in the final 100 km of tether, to sublimate water ice and dry ice off the tether.

Summary

The treatment of details of the Omaha Trail exceeds the format of this newsletter, so we only highlighted a few basic points. A good starting point for further information and appropriate references is the link provided at the start of this article and the pdf of our August 2017 presentation at the Space Elevator conference. For further science and engineering questions you can contact the authors via email under Lake Matthew Team (LMT) and M. Lades. This is a work-in-progress and numbers and concepts still undergo continued updates from our baseline presented in August. For example, SpaceX revised their ITS architecture in September 2017, and the Omaha Trail specs were updated accordingly, as given in our November 2017 presentation to the British Interplanetary Society. Also, the LMT won in November the HP Mars Home Planet Urbanization Concept Challenge, in the Innovation in Science category. The entry was an artificial magnetic shield that extends Omaha Trail facilities. It aims to reduce a crew’s exposure to cosmic radiation, on the open Martian surface. We invite ISEC members to participate in collaborative research, and we hope to keep everyone updated in future newsletters on our progress along the Omaha Trail.

Architect’s View

High School magazine publishes Student’s view of Space Elevator

Michael A. Fitzgerald

Interview

Recently, I was interviewed by a high school student from Austin, Texas. He had heard some things about our Elevator. He wanted more. The interview was a lot of fun; the young man was sincere and curious. I answered all his questions & even put him in contact with an Indian student that I have been mentoring. The well written article is impressive & the products of the student from the other side of the world are imaginative. (He is 14!) We are indeed the INTERNATIONAL Space Elevator Consortium! Read the article and form your own opinion. It starts on page 17.

Here is the link https://issuu.com/lasaezine/docs/3-the-final-frontier-1

Fitzer

Michael A. Fitzgerald
Chief Architect

Why

Submit your abstracts

by Pete Swan

It turns out that in the President’s Corner above, I mention several conferences that will be occurring this year. I am excited about them for several reasons: I love to travel, I enjoy the bright new ideas I run into, the people are always exciting [why not – they are interested in space and new ideas], and I get to spread the word on space elevators and the future. Of note, is the fact that the deadlines for abstracts are, in my opinion, always too early – but I have no control over that. So, the proposal is that you should think about proposing a paper and submitting today. Here are the deadlines:

  • ISEC Conference [Aug23-26 Seattle]: somewhere around May 15th

  • International Space Development Conference [May 24-28 Los Angeles]: Essentially the first half of February [submit through me as chair of session]

  • International Astronautical Federation Congress [Oct 1-5 Bremen Germany]: The deadline is the end of February.

  • British Interplanetary Society’s West Midland Branch [Mar 24 Droitwich]: Work with Peter Robinson

  • Symposium on Lift (Elevator) and Escalator Technologies [Sept 19-20 Northampton]: Bryan Laubscher was invited to speak, so work with him.

If you believe you do not have the “right stuff” to submit an abstract and be accepted, please revise your thinking. Our space elevator conference needs new ideas and people who have thought about the issues. The IAF in Bremen is always open for new concepts on space topics and one session is focusing on space elevators. The ISDC in Los Angeles is open to people who are interested in space and want to participate.

Come join as active presenters or just visit and enjoy the papers and concepts at these symposia. I encourage you to participate in the space elevator conference as a first priority [of course], but also the other ones. The ISDC in LA is always one of my favorite gatherings as they focus on real aspects of how space effects each of us on Earth AND shows the bigger vision of moving off planet.

Pete