President's Corner

by Pete Swan

If Not Me, Who?

Recently, I was reminded of what TS Eliot stated, “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

In addition, I reviewed an editorial discussing volunteerism with the theme of “If not me, who?” This is a powerful thought as each of us moves through life. If not me, then who will set the table? Cut the grass? Write the article? Go to a meeting? Support your spouse? Step up to a challenge? Study for another degree? Accept a hard and challenging task or job?

The downside is determining what is critical. If you do not take the task and work to fulfill the needs, then it will probably not be accomplished – especially inside a volunteer organization. Most volunteer organizations have too few members to achieve all they need to finish. As a result, the committed members of volunteer committees or organizations always are overtasked. In parallel, there are usually interesting and intriguing tasks sitting there waiting to be taken on by someone.

As I see it, we must each ask ourselves how we ensure that the critical level jobs are accomplished within our volunteer organization, and then, how we can do a little bit more to clear the table of necessary tasking. So, I would like to expand it to:

  • Each currently active member of ISEC – If not me, then who?

And

  • Each member of the ISEC community – How can I help?

We have started a new year, and we have many opportunities for more participation within ISEC. Many of the tasks are short duration or even low level of involvement over a longer period of time. Here are some openings we need help with – and the current lead:                                             

  • Our Virtual ISEC Conference in August – David Horn

  • Our new study group – Dual Space Access Architecture – Jerry Eddy

  • Green Road to Space Committee – Paul Phister

  • Tether / Climber Interface study – Dennis Wright

  • Updating our website – Dennis Wright

  • Presenting a paper at our conference – David Horn

  • History committee - uploading oral interview (one item) – Matthew Farrell

  • Support ISEC at ISDC conference, May 27-29 in Washington DC – Pete Swan

  • Contribute article to national magazine – Pete Swan

For more information, email me at info@isec.org.

Pete

ISEC Announces the 2022 Space Elevator Conference

ISEC 2022 Virtual Conference

19th and 20th of August

Theme: Space Elevators, the Transformational Permanent Space Infrastructure
Sub-themes: Tether/Climber Interface and Dual Space Access Architecture

The ISEC 2022 Conference will be virtual with proposed dates of: 19/20 August 2022 (times tbd). We look forward to gathering again after three years. We have missed the camaraderie, innovative ideas, updates on progress, and the momentum building characteristics of our conferences. This year we are forced to go virtual to ensure we do not miss another year of “getting together and sharing.” Please plan on supporting this conference! The theme of the conference will reflect the magnitude of the venture with two sub-themes carrying on the tradition of supporting ongoing ISEC studies and those just starting.

ISEC 2022 Conference Key Dates 

Abstracts Deadline:  24-Apr-2022

Draft Papers Deadline:  15-May-2022

Paper Approvals:  12-Jun-2022

The tie to paper submissions: https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/ISEC2022/

Registration information is forthcoming.

Free ISEC Membership

If you haven't joined ISEC yet, here's an offer you can't refuse: one year membership at no obligation to you. To claim your membership, send an e-mail, with subject "sign me up", to membership@isec.org between now and March 1st.

What's in it for you?

  • Access to online member-only meetings

  • Priority registration for the annual ISEC conference

  • The ability to participate in the yearly ISEC studies

  • Of course, you'll still get the newsletter

  • Being involved in an organization that's bringing space elevators closer to reality

What's in it for us?

Although the first year is free, we're hoping that next year you'll consider signing up for either a $50 professional membership or a $25 student membership for the following year. We also offer family and corporate level memberships. Yearly membership fees help us to continue the work on space elevators.

ISEC Webinars are Back

We're resuming our webinar series, so save the date:

Saturday, March 12th, 4 PM GMT, 8 AM US Pacific Time, 11 AM US Eastern Time

Larry Bartoszek, mechanical engineer, will discuss the space elevator climber, from basic principles to detailed design. Larry is part of the current ISEC study on the climber/tether interface and has developed a reference climber design using state of the art components. He will cover the current design status, the challenges and the possibility of using near-future technologies.

The webinar is free, but you will need to sign up. Details will appear at:

https://www.isec.org/events

and on LinkedIn as we near the date of the webinar.

Japan Space Solar Power

by Pete Swan and Larry Bartoszek

 Japanese Space Agency Committed to a Complete

Demonstration of Space Solar Power by 2025

We have been working with the SSP community for many years now and have the belief that their needs at GEO are huge (in excess of 3,000,000 tonnes – remember we have only lifted 25,000 tonnes in the history of space activities) and can be satisfied by us in a timely manner. (See Dr. Dotson’s YouTube presentation.) This need and timeline to achieve it leads to the conclusion that Space Elevators must be initiated soon, and they must be available prior to 2040. Rockets can lift prototypes to LEO and high LEO to perfect the satellites and then lift the initial satellite to GEO in 20 tonnes pieces to be assembled (each satellite weighs between 2,000 and 8,000 tonnes). The 20 tonnes to GEO estimate per launch equals 100 to 800 launches per satellite.

The press release (referenced below) by the National Space Society applauds the recent law committing Japan to a demonstration of a space solar power system that uses a satellite to generate power from the Sun and send it to Earth.  The press release and the Japanese law do not mention space elevators, but this will be a great opportunity for the space elevator business. The bottom line is that a very large Japanese corporation has stated – SSP satellites will be delivered by Space Elevators. The “how” concept is still valid, just not “up to date” from all our work. Here is the article with a link to a summary of the Japanese law extracted by John Mankins and a link to the UK plan for SSP:

https://space.nss.org/japan-tackles-clean-energy-from-space/

Please give me feedback after you look this over. 

Are you LinkedIn? Are you connected?

ISEC needs your help. We are a volunteer organization with the aim of Space Elevators becoming a reality: short term, we need your membership and your assistance with analysis (engineering, business, planning and more). Longer term, we want to see funding for the initiation of the Earth Elevator construction project.

Membership is simple and not costly, especially with the above offer of getting your first year free, but it would be great if you could do more. If you’re unable to help with analysis (either as part of a study or independently), and if you’re not a billionaire, you could simply contribute via social media.

We have a presence on many platforms, but our preference is LinkedIn. Our following there is growing rapidly, and we believe it will help us move forward.

So, if you have a LinkedIn account, here is what you can do:

  • Follow our ‘company’ page

  • ‘Like’ our posts, and perhaps even copy and post on your own page

  • If you’re an ISEC member, (if not, why not?) edit your profile to add a position of ‘Member’ for company ‘International Space Elevator Consortium’.

  • If you are active on the other social media platforms, include the ISEC connections when appropriate - events, pictures, activities, etc.

These simple actions will help cascade out awareness of ISEC and our goals, helping us gain new members and new contributors to our work. One of your contacts may even have a contact who in turn knows that billionaire who will fund the project. The Space Elevator would definitely then be “Sooner Than You Think”.

Amazing is possible

by Pete Swan

As the leader inside a volunteer organization (ISEC), I believe we have a great responsibility to take the Space Elevator to new heights. We must push for the concept and fight to be heard. We have a tremendous amount of knowledge built up and need to share it with the general public and the space arena. As such, I loved an article by Bill Purdy on Dec 20, 2021, inside a Launchspace Newsletter (13 Dec 2021). I hope both the organization and Mr. Purdy do not mind me paraphrasing the “Apollo Lessons for New Space.” We definitely are “new space” and need to move forward with these lessons inside our thought processes. Here is a list of them to entice you to search for more about how we can aggressively approach our mega-project development.

We went from almost no one in space in 1961 to landing on the Moon in just eight years. The challenges were monumental, but the transformation of NASA into a winning successful organization was remarkable. Mr. Purdy did much research and came up with these Apollo Lessons for today’s world. Please read them with the concept of applying the ideas to our development.

  • You cannot achieve great things while taking no personal risk

  • Not knowing what you are doing is no excuse to not try

  • Iteration times Risk Taking = Rapid Advance

  • Each step must be further than the last

  • Always push the boundaries

  • Fight through adversity and learn from it

  • Give big responsibility to good young engineers

  • Leadership and guidance work for a young aggressive team

He ends with “Amazing is possible.” I agree with all my heart that we can accomplish much because Amazing is possible. (Paraphrase by Peter Swan)

History Corner

by David Raitt, PhD
ISEC Chief Historian

Space Elevators and Space Agencies

The History Corner this month takes a look at how space agencies are showing a new interest in the space elevator. Of course, NASA has been involved in space elevators for quite some years - organizing a major workshop on the topic, funding space elevator research through NIAC and offering prize money for space elevator games. These activities have been well documented in the Space Elevator History book and in other History Corners in the ISEC Newsletter.

However, there have been two recent presentations about or relevant to the space elevator made to NASA during the Space Portal Office Commercial Space Lecture Series at NASA Ames. This weekly teleconference meeting began in 2009 and provides a unique environment and opportunity for the agency and the commercial space community, to connect with the pulse of commercial space activities and engage in an open dialogue about their challenges, opportunities and relevance to NASA. Each week a different speaker and topic is introduced with time for brief Questions & Answers. This website gives the titles of presentations and presenters and in some cases a pdf of the talks:

https://www.nasa.gov/ames/partnerships/spaceportal/commercial-space-lecture-series

On 17 March 2021, Debbie Nelson, Adrian Nixon and Rob Whieldon from Nixene Publishing made a presentation entitled “Graphene-Infused Space Industry - Impossible to Industrial in 16 years.” A brief overview of the Nixene Journal which is dedicated to graphene and 2D materials was given by Debbie Nelson, Contributing Editor and Project Manager. This was followed up by two short presentations - one by Rob Whieldon, Operations Director, on graphene and 2D materials, and the second on large scale sheet graphene by Adrian Nixon, CEO and Editor in Chief. For his part, Rob comprehensively reviewed the history of graphene and its properties and manufacture, as well as its many uses including in space vehicles. Adrian then covered the differences between polycrystalline and single crystal graphene and whether it was possible to make graphene at industrial scale and speeds with continuous manufacture. Among the examples of sheet/film graphene applications, the space elevator was listed, and graphene sheet/film was discussed as a candidate tether material for the space elevator. The talk also included several other applications and gave the latest state of play. A pdf of all the power point slides from the Nixene Publishing lecture is available for download at:
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/space_portal_nixene_publishing.pdf

On 23 September 2020, Michael Fitzgerald, Chief Architect of ISEC Executive Vice President and Co-founder of Galactic Harbour Associates, Inc. presented “Galactic Harbours - the commercial business and transportation nexus in space.” His talk covered: the Galactic Harbour concept; Space Elevator segments and adjuncts (i.e. the different components of the space elevator transportation system and how they would work); Architecture Engineering (including the Earth Port) Tether (introducing graphene; the GEO and APEX regions etc); Technology Maturity and Readiness; Transportation Elixir (including requirements for uses such as space solar power, nuclear waste disposal, asteroid mining); and a new Interplanetary Transportation Network. A pdf of all of Fitzer’s power point slides is available for download at:
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/space_portal_michael_fitzgerald.pdf

—————

In late 2021, as part of its Agenda 2025, which emphasizes boosting commercialization in Europe's space sector for a green and digital Europe, ESA called for new ideas for how space can boost Europe’s green agenda. With this dedicated call, ESA aimed to solicit (and fund) new concepts that would use space to achieve the ambitious objectives of making Europe the first climate neutral continent by 2050. ESA was specifically interested in supporting novel and innovative ideas for commercially viable solutions.

Currently there are challenges to meet the net-zero CO2 emission target by 2050. Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP) offers a viable alternative, and it was with this in mind that a proposal with the title "European Space Elevator (ESE) - The Green Path to a Green Future in Europe" was submitted to ESA in response to its call for ideas. The proposal, submitted by Arthur Woods of Astrostrom GmbH in Switzerland, and co-authored by David Raitt, Pete Swan and Adrian Nixon, illustrates the need to lift massive tonnage to GEO without negatively impacting the environment by the use of heavy launch vehicles. The approach outlined is to develop a Space Elevator which offers a complementary delivery mechanism for scaling SBSP for 2050, hedging the risk of reliance on a single approach while reducing the time required for large-scale SBSP deployment by conventional rockets as well as eliminating pollution of the atmosphere caused by their launch. This novel, creative, innovative and commercially viable idea of saving the environment via Space Solar Power, would ensure green lifts of the huge tonnage required at GEO. Indeed, the specific contributions with links to the green agendas would be in the areas of Transforming our Economy and Societies into a Spacefaring Civilization; Making Space and Terrestrial Transportation Sustainable for All; Leading the Third Industrial Revolution on Earth and Beyond; and Cleaning our Energy System by Replacing it with the Space Energy Option.

The objectives of the study are several: to define and describe in detail how the European Space Elevator and proposed Space-Based Solar Power systems combine to create a synergistic approach to meeting the many EU green agenda goals by providing inexhaustible clean energy from space in a logistically feasible launch scenario; to define top level customer demands enabling SBSP contributions to the meeting the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement specifically with regards to providing yearly mass-to-orbit capabilities to GEO to achieve required energy levels; to describe the Dual Space Access Strategy for collaborative space development: i.e., launching mainly humans via rockets and lifting mainly cargo via Space Elevator; to elaborate on the environmental impact and advantages of using a Space Elevator versus launching many thousands of rockets using chemical propellants, i.e., the Green Road to Space; to define the technological parameters of the European Space Elevator system: surface location, tether mass, construction process, Apex Anchor and expand beyond the two International Academy of Astronautics four-year studies; to identify and describe the optimal material technologies, currently under development, particularly graphene, that would enable the construction of an ESE; and to analyze the viability and the geographic characteristics of using the Kourou, French Guiana, space center as the logistics center for the marine Earth Port of the ESE.

The full proposal can be viewed at: https://bit.ly/3yTGI5x and it is gratifying to note that our idea was one of those selected on 11 January 2021 for evaluation by ESA experts. Let’s hope for a positive outcome!

_______

It should perhaps also be mentioned that JAXA has been involved to some extent, notably by launching tethered cubesats in a mini space elevator simulation in 2018, and also by having a watching brief on the space elevator challenges organized by JSEA. It is also highly likely that Obayashi Corporation has made pitches to JAXA regarding its construction plans for a space elevator by 2050. Indeed, it is reported that there is a project afoot to deploy an SSPS satellite at 36,000km from a space elevator. JAXA and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Japan (MEXT) will collaborate to start SSPS testing in 2022. Obayashi Corporation plans to start building its space lift in 2025 and be using it in 2050.

https://www.groovyjapan.com/en/space-elevator/

Tether Materials

by Adrian Nixon, Board member ISEC

Quality Control for Large-area Sheet Graphene

Smart people tend to ask the best questions. At ISEC I’m accustomed to working with very smart people.

A while ago I was talking with my ISEC colleague, Michael ‘Fitzer’ Fitzgerald, about the manufacture of graphene tether material. A tether made of graphene will need to be made of more than12,000 layers. Each one will be a continuous piece of material as flawless as possible.

In the world of graphene and other two-dimensional (2D) materials, we refer to this flawless quality as a single crystal [1]. A crystal in this context refers to a repeating pattern, the hexagonal molecular unit of graphene, rather than the brittle glittering jewel of our everyday experience.

Fitzer asked me a deceptively straightforward question:

“How do you know when you have made a single crystal?”.

That made me think, and at the time I probably gave an inadequate answer. I’ll try to do better in this newsletter entry.

To give you some context, let’s consider the current state of the art of graphene manufacturing. Graphene can now be made on copper foil by continuous roll-to-roll processes in rolls up to half a metre wide and lengths of hundreds of metres. USA based company; General Graphene has released pictures of the graphene crystals that they can grow at square centimetre scales [2].

Figure 1: Industrial production of polycrystalline graphene with large crystal domains

Figure 1 shows a single atomic layer of polycrystalline graphene grown on copper foil with individual crystal domains at square centimetre scale. 

This poses new challenges for quality control, particularly thinking forward to manufacturing tether quality graphene. The expectation is that these domains are a single crystal of graphene. However, the quality control tests that could prove this still have to be developed. Raman spectroscopy is one of the key tools, but the laser spot size is limited to one micron [3]. This needs to be a thousand times better resolution to reach the nanometre scale.

Electron microscopy can achieve a resolution at the one nanometre level [4], but production samples have to be removed from the roll and analysed offline. Also, a single crystal of graphene would appear as a featureless image at these magnifications, which is hardly ideal for a quality control test.

For the moment, when we look at large area domains of graphene like this, we have to make the assumption that these could be single crystals and accept that no one really knows for sure.  However, this is not good enough for the manufacture of tether quality graphene as people’s lives will depend on proving the integrity of the material.

For now, we will continue to monitor the research around measurement tools and techniques and influence the development of improved quality control methods. 

Fitzer’s straightforward question forces us to think hard about the challenge of quality control techniques for tether materials. We will need to be able to measure and prove quality at both the smallest and biggest scales imaginable. At the small end we will need to operate at the nanometre scale, one billionth (1x10-9) of a metre, and at extremely large scales, up to one hundred million (1x108) metres.

This is something we will return to in future newsletters. It is reassuring to know that my colleagues at ISEC are the type of people who have been-there-done-that with seemingly impossible challenges in their careers.

References:

  1. Nixon, A., Whieldon, R. and Nelson, D., 2021. Graphene: Manufacturing, Applications and Economic Impact. 1st ed. Manchester: Nixene Publishing, p.44.

  2. Nixon, A., 2021. Special Feature: Industrial production of large-area monolayer CVD graphene Nixene Journal, 5(11), p.9.

  3. Anon, 2022. Raman Imaging & Spectroscopy analysis - HORIBA. [online] Horiba.com. Available at: <https://www.horiba.com/en_en/raman-imaging-and-spectroscopy-analysis/> [Accessed 4 February 2022].

  4. Anon, 2011. Introduction to Electron Microscopy - Advanced Microscopy - Imaging Facilities - The University of Utah. [online] Advanced-microscopy.utah.edu. Available at: <https://advanced-microscopy.utah.edu/education/electron-micro/> [Accessed 4 February 2022].

Upcoming Events

International Space Development Conference (ISDC)

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

The ISDC is the annual conference of the National Space Society bringing together NSS leaders and members with leading managers, engineers, scientists, educators, and businessmen from civilian, military, commercial, entrepreneurial, and grassroots advocacy space sectors. Information about sponsorships, exhibiting, and volunteering is available at each year’s ISDC website. As in recent years, ISEC will host a ‘Space Elevator Track’ within ISDC2022, Friday 2-5 pm.

Track Title: “Permanent Infrastructure – Space Elevators As A Transformational Capability” 

Top Level:  Explain Transformational in the Sense of Enabling Missions and Changing the Way We Do Space Access, Centered On Our Three Study Reports:

  • Green Road to Space

  • Interplanetary

  • And the newest study: Dual Space Access Architecture

Study Explanation Level: Current Climber-Tether Interface and other topics as appropriate

——————————

Virtual Space Elevator Conference

Sponsored by the International Space Elevator Consortium
Topics: Transformational Permanent Space Infrastructure; Tether/Climber interface & Dual Space Access Architecture
Friday, August19th through Saturday, August 20th, 2022
Registration: TBD (see announcement, above)

 ——————————

73rd International Astronautical Congress

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

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 do matching funds for donations or volunteer time through Benevity? If so, you can make ISEC your recipient. Our 501(c)(3) number is 80-0302896.