Editor’s Note

Dear Fellow Space Elevator Enthusiast,

Another monthly newsletter, another editorial about the Coronavirus…

The COVID-19 restrictions have had a tremendous impact on our conferences and the ones our members planned to attend. We will not be hosting the annual Space Elevator Conference this year in Seattle, WA. If you scroll down to “Upcoming Events” (or click on the link, above) you will see a lot of events that have been postponed indefinitely, or cancelled completely. One in particular, the 71st International Astronautical Congress, has gone virtual and changed its name, adding "The Cyberspace Edition!" They are already planning the 72nd International Astronautical Congress to be held in Dubai, where this year's event was to be held. 

We have also gone virtual for the time being. Read below how our latest webinar went and read on for more upcoming online-only events. Be sure to register to keep up with the latest from our engineers and scientists!

Sandee Schaeffer
Newsletter Editor

President's Corner

by Pete Swan

New Website Presentation

One of the principle purposes of the International Space Elevator Consortium is to increase the body of knowledge surrounding Space Elevators. We have been working towards this goal continuously since we were created. The yearly conferences provide opportunities to discuss ideas and present concepts and experimental results. The studies address a major issue each year and we are up to 10 completed studies. Each of these topics help move us closer to the development program we all are ready for. 

One major task has always been to have a visual representation of our progress towards the goal of a complete body of Space Elevator knowledge. We have a small team that has effectively improved our website and kicked off the new layout last week. Please go to www.isec.org and checkout your favorite topic.  I would like to thank the players at this point because the website is really starting to "hum" with interesting topics and current affairs. Thanks to: Martin Lades, Dan Gleeson, Dennis Wright and Michael Schaeffer as the principal architects of the website with the participation of many more supplying content and helping the development - including David Horn, Sandee Schaeffer, and Peter Robinson. (If I've missed someone--sorry about that!)

If you have any ideas to improve its layout or content, contact anyone on the leadership team and work with them to "make it happen." I am inspired by the success so far with great hope for new content and layouts. 

Recently I presented at a webinar (30 Apr) and enjoyed it greatly. During the development of the charts and the script, I borrowed some words from Michael Fitzgerald that truly portray our future with Galactic Harbours. I used the following quotation multiple times during the hour as I believe it is a timely statement and stimulates dreams of the future. 

This story is still being written.
The Apex Anchor is where the Galactic Harbour
meets the Shoreline of Outer Space;
Where the “Transportation Story of the
21st Century” meets the “Final Frontier.”

Keep Climbing!

Pete

Webinar Results

by Dennis Wright 

Today’s Space Elevator: Concept, Status,
and Interplanetary Mission Support

Pete Swan, ISEC president, presented a webinar on April 30th entitled “Today’s Space Elevator.” This was the second in a series of webinars covering a wide range of space elevator topics.  Pete highlighted progress in materials technology, space mission support and the maturation of the space elevator concept in the last decade.

A promising new material, single crystal graphene, has the strength to serve as the main tether material.  Lengths up to 50 cm have been produced in the laboratory and research is underway to move from laboratory tests to large-scale industrial production. 

The space elevator is being seen more and more as a transportation infrastructure with the ability to support large space missions.   It seems unlikely that the huge tonnages that must be delivered to space for such projects as the Moon Village, Space Solar Power and Mars Settlement, can be delivered by rockets alone.  In fact space elevators will be required to handle most of the job.

The space elevator will also drastically reduce the time taken for interplanetary flights.  Releasing craft from the Apex Anchor at the end of the tether imparts a high delta-v, enabling trips to Mars, for example, in 61 days.   Such reduced trip times substantially reduce manned mission costs and increase mission safety.  Robotic missions to anywhere in the solar system will also become faster and cheaper.

As the space elevator infrastructure develops, space enterprise will develop with it.  The concept of a Galactic Harbour envisions pairs of space elevators with business activity at several altitudes along the tethers, especially at GEO.  This is analogous to a modern seaport and harbor in which ships regularly dock, load and unload cargo and then depart.

It’s an exciting time for space elevators.

The next webinar is May 29th.  Adrian Nixon of the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) will discuss new methods of producing long single crystal graphene for use in the space elevator.  Registration is free at https://www.isec.org/events.

To Mars by Zip-Wire?

by Peter Robinson
peter.robinson@isec.org

(This article is a personal idea and intended to provoke debate: it is not a firm proposal and does not represent any plans or policy promoted by ISEC)

The ISEC/ASU Interplanetary Transfer concept includes a 'climber' traveling from GEO to Apex Anchor nodes, stopping at the Anchor and releasing a payload to The Moon, Mars or beyond … but it’s not really a ‘climber’, so I’ll call it a ‘car’.

But what if the car didn't stop at the end?  Transit along the Elevator beyond GEO is effectively a 'descent', requiring braking to limit speed.  What if there were no brakes, and the car was allowed to accelerate along the tether?  As it approached the Apex Anchor it could then release the payload with a higher velocity, and the 64,000 km of tether above GEO would become the longest-ever zip-wire.

I calculate that the car would reach the Anchor traveling at around 2 km/sec (4480 mph) radially : this vector adds to the Anchor circumferential velocity to yield a release at over 8 km/s, reducing the Mars transit time by 1-2 days … but I’ll leave it to orbital mechanics experts to confirm that.  There’ll also be a major transit time saving for the journey on the tether from GEO to Apex: the free-fall will take less than 2 days, compared with maybe a week for a slower braked descent.

Are these high speeds possible?  Perhaps not with a wheeled 'climber', but perhaps by using a contactless electromagnetic drive : the drive would be used for steering to stay on the tether and to provide a 'levitation' lateral thrust to counter the Coriolis force (of up to 0.015g).

With no brakes the descent car would be simpler than a powered or braked climber, and could simply eject itself from the tether before it reaches the Apex … remember that a braked climber will need an 'eject' safety system in any case.  Perhaps it could even eject with the payload still attached and travel with it for capture and operation on the Mars elevator?

I’m exploring this idea further, working with Prof Matthew Peet of ASU who has already independently considered high speed payload release: we may produce a paper in due course, and/or include the idea in the forthcoming Study Paper.  More comments are welcome!

History Corner

by David Raitt

This is the second part of two parts due to length. For the first part, please see the April 2020 issue.

Russian Influence on the Space Elevator:
A Timeline Part II

The ISEC History Corner this month looks at Russian influence and involvement with space elevators. Last month, our story began just prior to the turn of the 19th century with a well-known Russian scientist named Konstantin Tsiolkovsky who is celebrated as one of the fathers of rocketry. Tsiolkovsky was the first person to provide a description of an early forerunner to a space elevator. The story continued with a much more detailed description of a space elevator by another Russian, Yuri Artsutanov, in 1960 in his work "To the Cosmos by Electric Train". Artsutanov is today considered as the co-inventor of the space elevator (along with the American Jerome Pearson, whose efforts were finally published in 1975.) This month, the story concludes with some other Russian contributions - many of which are simply news items proudly claiming the space elevator as being a Russian invention, rather than offering any substantial new work.

In 1966, an American team of engineers headed by John Isaacs, discussing a very long tapered cable in space spun out in both directions simultaneously, determined what type of material would be required to build a space elevator. Some 18 months after Isaacs and his colleagues published their work, Russian journalist Vladimir Lvov responded with a lengthy and detailed letter in Science to the effect that Leningrad engineer Yuri N. Artsutanov had already developed the concept they proposed and had published his ideas for a ‘heavenly funicular’ in 1960 (Lvov, 1966). The magazine published Lvov’s letter together with a comment from Isaacs and his team in which they agreed that Artsutanov had proposed his sky hook six years before their paper was published.

Just as Artsutanov (and Isaacs and his team) had been unaware of the work of Tsiolkovsky before him, so too was the American Jerome Pearson unaware of Artsutanov’s when he conceptualized his 'Orbital Tower' in 1975. Here is not the place to discuss and compare Pearson's work with Artsutanov's though there were similarities as well as divergences, but though the independent efforts of Artsutanov and Pearson were separated by some 14 years, the pair agreed to be known as 'co-inventors' of the space elevator, despite never having collaborated.  In a historic meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia in August 2006, the two inventors met for the first time, and they talked through an interpreter, outside the Hermitage Museum. Subsequently, Yuri Artsutanov was invited to the International Space Elevator Consortium's annual conference in Washington in 2010. There, amongst other activities he participated in a question and answer session with Jerome Pearson and lent his name to a prize Competition. Yuri Artsutanov passed away on 1 January 2019.

Other Russian contributions

One of the earliest depictions of a space elevator - an assembly of spheres, hovering apparently over Sri Lanka, from which a cable stretches down to Earth, was done by the Russian Andrei Sokolov, and is actually entitled ‘Space Elevator’. It appears in a volume of paintings published in Moscow in 1967 with captions in Russian and English entitled the ‘Stars are Awaiting Us’ by Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov and Andrei Konstantinovich Sokolov (Leonov and Sokolov, 1967). Cosmonaut Leonov - the first person to conduct extravehicular activity - was an accomplished artist, whose published books include albums of his artistic efforts (often of colleagues sketched in space) as well as works he did in collaboration with his friend Andrei Sokolov.

Selected papers of Soviet space pioneer Fridrikh Arturovich Tsander, designer of the first Russian liquid-propellant rocket in the 1930s, were posthumously published (in Russian) in 1977 in Riga revealing that he had conceived of a lunar space tower with a tapered tether deployed near L1 as early as 1910. He was acquainted with the work of Tsiolkovsky with whom his own ground-breaking ideas compared favorably. As a result of his trajectory calculations he developed a fascination for Mars, though it is not known whether he drew up a concept for a Mars elevator as he did for a lunar one.

In November 1991, Japanese physicist Sumio Iijima announced in Nature the preparation of nanometer-size, needle-like tubes of carbon - now familiar as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) - that seemed to have unlimited potential. CNTs - the strongest arrangement of carbon molecules ever known - seemed to be the elusive material needed for the space elevator. Independently, and about the same time, Russian workers also reported the discovery of carbon nanotubes and nanotube bundles, but generally having a much smaller length to diameter ratio.

Under the headline 'Russia to launch first space elevator', an item in Pravda dated 29 March 2004 stated that "this unique project has been in development for years. The idea of constructing an elevator that will be used in space was first introduced by Dutch scientists. European Space Agency (ESA) commissioned Samara's Space University to construct an apparatus that will be capable of carrying various products from the International Space Station back to earth. Nowadays, Russian scientists from the town of Samara are already finishing up their work. The experiment, introduced by the Dutch, has already sparked up interests of politicians and authorities. The main principle of this freight elevator is rather simple. A capsule loaded with cargo will be lowered to earth by means of a special sturdy 30 km long cable. Despite its large parameters, the cable will weigh no more than 6 kilograms. Upon entering dense layers of atmosphere, the cable will burn and the cargo will continue its trip to earth by means of an air balloon (2 meters in diameter). Nowadays, it takes a long time for various scientific data to reach earth. The space elevator will solve this problem. Russian scientists from the town of Samara plan to finish their work by October of 2004. First tests are scheduled for the end of the year. The experiment will take place at the base of “Foton” spaceship. Project director Michael Krauf is sure in the project's success. At this point the project cannot be called economically sound. However, once all nuances are worked out, its profits are expected to be tremendous. It is also expected that such space elevators will be used to examine other planets."

As pointed out by Marc Boucher in SpaceRef on 7 April 2004 there are some problems with this story!  "To start off the space elevator referenced really isn't a space elevator as is popularly defined. The story really is about a 30km tether system used to de-orbit cargo from the International Space Station. And while there might be some merit in the idea of using a tether to lower cargo to the atmosphere I can't see this project moving forward in the current fiscally challenged space station. One last point, the Dutch did not invent the Space Elevator concept. The concept has been credited to a Konstantin Tsiolkovsky."

An article in Sputnik News for 30 November 2006 claimed that Russia would develop space elevators and would build the first permanent lunar base in 2015.  The article discusses the problems of delivery payloads from the Earth to the Moon and back, as well as Mars. Current rockets could not provide the necessary performance capabilities and electric rocket engines could not attain an optimal boost trajectory. However, scientists from the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences have developed a unique space elevator for lunar and martian missions. Although a bit slower, the new system would cut back on interplanetary delivery expenses. The articles mentions that a space elevator consists of satellites, spacecraft and payloads linked by long, thin, flexible elements. The simplest system links two spacecraft by means of a cable with a length of several dozen or even several hundred kilometers. This tandem, which resembles a space sling, revolves around its center of gravity, which in turn has a predetermined orbit. Either of the two spacecraft can therefore launch a payload along any required trajectory without any rocket engines.

The article goes on to note that the foundations of the space-elevator theory were laid by Russian scientists. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the father of astronautics, suggested using a space-tether system to create artificial gravity aboard orbital stations. Fridrikh Tsander, an early Russian space visionary, advocated placing a space elevator with a 60,000-km tether on the Moon. He believed that gravitational and centrifugal forces would stretch the tether and allow it to be used as a cableway to transport payloads. In 1965, the Russian Central Machine-Building Design Bureau, headed by Sergei Korolev, started preparing for the first space-tether experiment whereby it was planned to link a Soyuz spacecraft to the last stage of the launch vehicle using a steel cable. Unfortunately, this project was mothballed after Korolev's death and resumed only 20 years later.

In Part 2 of this article the ideas of Space Research Institute for building a space-elevator cluster that would deliver payloads from the Earth to the Moon and back are discussed further. Theoretical studies and experiments showed that the cluster should comprise two cableway systems, one in a low circular and the other in a low elliptical Earth orbit, and one cableway in a circular equatorial lunar orbit. The article goes into some technical description and states the space-elevator cluster will exchange payloads between orbital cableways. In essence, two-way freight traffic would turn such cableways into a transportation artery...The space elevator will thus deliver equipment to the Moon and bring back lunar rock and soil. Its launch frequency, the main criterion of its cost-effective performance, depends on the time needed to restore the "launching" cableway's initial altitude.

The article goes on to note that the Space Research Institute has already conducted several experiments in water and confirmed the main parameters of the projected Earth-Moon-Earth transport system. Calculations show that the new system will weigh 28 times less than the payload it will deliver to the Moon during its entire service life. Meanwhile, the fuel burned by conventional rocket engines would weigh 16 times more than their payload. The need to exploit the Moon and Mars will serve as the main incentive for developing space elevators as mankind looks for new places to settle.

The above two-part article in Sputnik was picked up by Bill Christensen who reported in Technovelgy dated 4 December 2006 that Russia's Space Research Institute has studied the idea of a space-elevator cluster to economically deliver payloads from the Earth to the Moon and back. Briefly describing the cable system, the author of the article wonders where the energy for the system will come from. Conservation of energy requires that the lowest tether, once it transfers energy to the payload, and boosting it higher, will fall to a lower orbit. How will it be raised again? One way has been suggested by Tethers Unlimited Inc., which looked at using special tethers (cables) that could "push" against the Earth's magnetic field to move back up into position. The Technovelgy article notes that this "new" Russian technology looks a lot like NASA's proposed MXER - Momentum-eXchange/Electrodynamic Reboost tether technology. The article concludes that with the entry of the Russians into this area, it sounds like the race to build a "space railway" - a system of cableways that can sling payloads to the moon - is well underway.

A later news piece in Sputnik for 6 October 2008 under the headline 'Japanese to build space elevator invented in Russia' notes that Japanese engineers intend to build an elevator to deliver cargo into space with a schedule for the elevator's assembly and commissioning due to start in November 2008. This article is of interest because it mentions the ideas of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, as well as Yuri Artsutanov, and goes into some detail on space elevators - drawing on the work of the Space Research Institute and Sergei Korolev.

Another short item in Sputnik entitled 'Climbing into space by the rope' dated 17 February 2009 keeps up the theme of getting into space imaginatively and cheaply - and this is the space elevator whose development has been recently carried out much faster owing to progress in the production of super-durable light materials. [Steel, the most durable material of Tsiolkovsky's time, was not capable of bearing even a small part of the expected physical stress.] Calculations show that at the height of about 42,000km centrifugal force will be equal to gravity and if a wire rope that length is made, then we will get a direct roadway from Earth to space. Again the work of Tsiolkovsky and Artsutanov in describing a space elevator are noted, but the article goes on to mention a NASA project whereby several super-durable 35,000 km-long wire ropes are fixed to the upper end of a giant 50 km-high ground-based tower. In space, the wire ropes are tied up to a special satellite and platforms on electromagnetic engines will move by the wires to carry astronauts and loads. Making wire ropes was the only problem, but the article says that it seems British experts have resolved it. Nanotechnologists from Cambridge have developed a flexible and very durable light carbonic thread. For the time being, they can only make one gram of this material per day, which is enough to spread the thread for 29km. A space elevator will require 232,000km of the thread and thus it will take more than a decade before it is launched. In NASA's estimate, the project will cost more than $10 billion, but the game is still worth the candle. Experts believe that it will cost no more than $1.5 to get one kilo of a load to space because of the space elevator's low operational expense. The article concludes that obviously, the construction of a space elevator will become the most grandiose project in human history. A tremendous amount of scientific, technical, material and political problems will make it possible only on condition of close international cooperation.

The final Russian connection can be found in a short film produced in 2011 called ‘Payload’ and set in a space elevator town (imaginatively called Clarke’s Town!) which was inspired by the Kazakhstan space launch facility town of Baikonur and where the locals scavenge the fallen refuse from a nearby Russian spaceport.

Livestream

Space Elevator Climber: Tether Interface, Safety and Reliability Considerations

This PPT presentation was previously given by Peter Robinson (ISEC Lead Engineer, Climbers) at the August 2019 ISEC conference in Seattle.  This repeat showing via Zoom is hosted by the West Midlands branch of the British Interplanetary Society (BIS) at 2pm BST on May 16th, accompanied by a pre-recorded audio commentary.  Peter will be on-line for Q&A at the end.

The paper covers the essential and secondary functional requirements for Climbers using friction drive and magnetic drive options and describes the benefits of small modular drive units.  It then describes other design considerations such as Centre of Gravity, Steering and ‘Descender’ climbers.

Follow this link for more details and registration instructions.

European Space Elevator Challenge

EU space elevator challenge

Galactic Harbours, the 7th Space Elevator Architecture

by Pete Swan

Much has changed across the topic of access to space during this new century.  Where did the enthusiasm for Space Elevators really start?  In this case, much of it was started by others; and grown incrementally.  The current participants stand with a tremendous legacy.  The 7th Space Elevator Architecture, as described in the "to be published soon" study report (Interplanetary Mission Support) was first presented to a small but enthusiastic group of attendees at the International Space Development Conference in June 2019.  This "passing of the baton" occurred during the Space Elevator Track while "co-inventor" Jerome Pearson, Michael Fitzgerald "Chief Architect" and a generation of "excited students" participated. The 7th Architecture lives on the shoulders of previous inventors and engineers while it looks into the future along with the tremendous efforts to move off-planet. 

Each architecture leaped forward in design concepts, leveraging past insights.  This led to a series of seven architectures over the last century and a quarter.  The first two were significant leaps in understanding while the next four have enabled the current status of readiness for development.  The recent growth to a dual Space Elevator Galactic Harbour Architecture leads to the conclusions that they ENABLE interplanetary mission support, leading to robust movement off-planet.

19th Century, The first Architecture

  • In 1895, Tsiolkovsky looked at the Eiffel Tower and envisioned something built up towards Geosynchronous Orbit.

20th Century Architectures

  • In 1960, Yuri Arsutanov presented a realistic approach visualizing how to achieve Mr. Tsiolkovsky's vision.

  • Then, in 1974, Jerome Pearson resolved many issues with engineering calculations of tether strengths needed and approaches for deployment.

21st Century Architectures - Modern Concepts

  • Brad Edwards established the initial baseline for Space Elevator infrastructures at the turn of the century with his book: “Space Elevators” [2002].  This "modern day" concept established that the engineering could be accomplished in a reasonable time with reasonable resources.

  • In 2014, The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) leveraged Dr. Edwards’ design supported by intervening ten years of excellent development work from around the globe.  The 2019 study enhanced It.

  • In parallel during 2014, a new version of Space Elevator architectures was released by the Obayashi Corporation. Their focus was movement of humans and massive loads to GEO and beyond.

  • A Seventh Architecture:  This concept was developed and matured within ISEC study reports showing incremental progress. In 2019, the Galactic Harbour Architecture was shown in the IAA latest study report. The resulting vision of Galactic Harbours show multiple locations around the equator leading to six or more Space Elevators inside three Galactic Harbours supporting, as a principle mission, interplanetary logistical support.

“What is past is prologue” certainly applies here. However, the authors of this latest architecture see it more as their stewardship built on discreet steps; an improving and enlarging legacy.  Standing on their shoulders we unabashedly proclaim: “We have moved from Vision to Necessity.”

three galactic harbours

Upcoming Events

Space Elevator Climber: Tether Interface, Safety and Reliability Considerations

Livestream via Zoom
https://www.bis-space.com/2020/04/23/24560/livestream-the-space-elevator-climber-by-peter-robinson-isec#comment-871
Sponsored by the British Interplanetary Society
Saturday, May 16, 2020 1:00 to 2:15 PM UTC

Graphene, the Last Piece of the Space Elevator Puzzle?

Webinar sponsored by ISEC
https://www.isec.org/events
Friday, May 29th, 2020 1:00 to 2:00 PM UTC

SPECxROC 2020: Japan

http://www.jsea.jp/technology/specxroc/000529.html
****Postponed****
Sponsored by the Japanese Space Elevator Association
Event 1: Fukushima, Japan
Event 2: Niigata, Japan

European Space Elevator Challenge (EUSPEC) 2020

https://euspec.warr.de/
Monday, September 14th through Thursday, September 17th, 2020
Technical University, Garching Campus
Munich, Germany
Team registration ends April 30th

71st International Astronautical Congress -- The Cyberspace Edition

http://www.iafastro.org/events/iac/iac-2020/
Monday, October 12th through Friday, October 14th, 2020

New Strong Materials for Space Applications 

Sponsored by the British Interplanetary Society
****Postponed****
TBD in 2021 (Originally July 7, 2020)
Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre, (GEIC)
Manchester, UK

International Space Development Conference (ISDC)

Sponsored by the National Space Society
Friday, May 28th through Sunday, May 30th, 2021

72nd International Astronautical Congress

Monday, October 25th through Friday, October 29th, 2021
Dubai World Trade Center
Dubai, UAE