Editor's Note

Dear Fellow Space Elevator Enthusiast,

This issue is called the December 2023/January 2024 issue of the Space Elevator newsletter because the contributors and editor get a break over the holidays! The next issue will be in February of 2024 unless something incredibly important comes up. If that is the case, I will send out a short blast.  

Happy Holidays!

Sandee Schaeffer
Newsletter Editor

President's Corner

by Pete Swan

Being Thankful

We at ISEC have so much to be thankful for. Principally, we have friends within our community who are moving our mega-project forward. In addition, we have the rare circumstance where we are continuously challenged at so many levels. Can you imagine a 100,000 km tether made of a material discovered within the last few years? How about trying to conceptualize and design a system that will revolutionize a remarkable arena new to humanity (starting about five years ago) facilitating the movement of people to the Moon and Mars? But best of all, we can show how a successful project development can tremendously impact the future of humanity. How about the realization that you can beat gravity, the dominant force restricting our bright future off-Earth?

This end-of-the-year season should be enjoyed and shared while we ponder big questions and wonder--How can we succeed, and what can I do to help make it happen?

Remember – you can join us and contribute towards your own future!

Pete

Success! ISEC Mid-Year Interns 2023

Each year, ISEC accepts applications from students in their third or fourth years of university to participate in space elevator research. This year, two winners conducted research towards advancing Space Elevator knowledge. The focus was along the theme that Space Elevators have transformational characteristics and will revolutionize the movement off-planet. The paper titles and 2023 ISEC researchers who participated over the last several months were:

Souvik Mukherjee is an engineering student at Vellore Institute of Technology, India. He has been active, and fascinated, with space exploration. He is also a leader for ISEC inside India and the National Space Society (Mumbai chapter). The title for his paper is “Pre-Development Tests for Space Elevator.”

Matthew DiCairano is an Astrophysics and Astronomy student at Florida Institute of Technology. He has been a believer in space elevators and enjoyed the internship tied to coursework in the same field. His research was entitled: “Expanding the possibility of future research over interplanetary distances through the utilization of the Modern-Day Space Elevator.”

Their papers are on the ISEC website at https://www.isec.org/past-interns.

“The Marvels” Movie Review

by Lyn Schaeffer

Space elevators have shown up in books and on the screen before, but now the space elevator has made possibly its biggest pop culture debut ever! In The Marvels, the new sequel to Captain Marvel, the family of teenage superhero Kamala Khan, known as Ms. Marvel, must be evacuated from Earth after being targeted by aliens who are trying to take a powerful artifact that Ms. Marvel carries. They are escorted by the popular recurring character Nick Fury up a space elevator to what appears to be a GEO station at the top of the tether. The scene of them riding the elevator is short but very fun as Kamala’s parents and brother look out the windows and see the band of Earth’s atmosphere below. The movie depicts the space elevator as a donut-shaped car around a tether that appears to be made of some kind of hard light. It was possibly inspired by previous elevator designs that included a laser to propel the climber upwards along the tether, although in this more fantastical version, the laser and tether seem to be combined into some plasma-like substance.

A frame from the movie trailer

The ride seems to only take a couple of hours, and the station has the artificial gravity typical of many of these movies instead of a more realistic upside-down “gravity” caused by centrifugal forces. While this is more of a science fantasy depiction than a science fiction one, it is fun to see the space elevator in such a big property like this. They refer to it by name as a space elevator, so I expect a lot of excited and curious audience members might go home and start doing some online searches for space elevators and find out just how realistic this dream of the future is!

History Corner

by David Raitt, ISEC Chief Historian

History Corners Reviewed

For this month’s History Corner, I thought I would briefly review the thirty-plus History Corner contributions to date in the ISEC Newsletter concerning aspects of the history of space elevators. They have covered a wide variety of topics - from pioneers and obituaries, Soviet and American influence, sessions at the International Astronautical Congresses (IAC), competitions and games, technologies and media, and more!

The first was a special issue of the Newsletter in February 2019 devoted to the memory of Yuri Artsutanov who had recently passed away. Yuri was named as the co-inventor of the space elevator along with Jerome Pearson, to whom a tribute was paid in March 2021 following his own demise. As noted in the Newsletter for February 2023, the Jerome Pearson Memorial Lecture series was subsequently inaugurated at the IAC. In this same Newsletter, the life and legacy of Robert “Skip” Penny was also covered.

In addition to these space elevator pioneers, the contribution of Arthur C. Clarke to the concept was discussed in the Newsletters for December 2019 and February 2020, while Michael Laine of LiftPort was recognized in September 2021. Although he also made a massive contribution to space elevator design and architecture, there has as yet been no separate History Corner devoted to Brad Edwards. His work was, however, covered in the Newsletters of June and July 2020 under the topic of NASA’s interest and funding of space elevators. An overview of the various space elevator architectures devised by these pioneers over the last century or so was provided in the September and October 2022 History Corners.

The first two individuals to write about space elevators in some form or other were Russian--Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Yuri Artsutanov--and the story of their research, ideas, and influence were covered in the Newsletters for April and May 2020. Soviet space writings were also the subject in the August 2022 History Corner.

Although there has been no Corner about all the various space elevator conferences that have been held since June 1999 when David Smitherman organized a workshop on the concept in Huntsville and then Brad Edwards and Michael Laine organised the first international space elevator conference in Seattle in August 2002, there have been two History Corners on the space elevator sessions held at the International Astronautical Congress. The first in the Newsletter for December 2021/January 2022, noted the four very first space elevator sessions (one being a Poster Session) held in Vancouver in October 2004 and featuring three papers by Brad Edwards. The second, in the March 2022 Newsletter, analysed the subject coverage of papers presented to date in the space elevator sessions at the annual IACs.

Besides conferences, sessions, papers, and the like, there is another side to space elevators and that is the various competitions and games that have been held around the world in an effort to get younger people involved in space elevator development. Usually comprising tether and climber events, History Corners in April and May 2021 covered space elevator games in the USA; July 2021 saw a Corner covering games in Europe, while August 2021 discussed them in Japan. The October 2023 History Corner went back to the beginning, describing Elevator 2010 - the NASA space elevator games powered beam climber challenge.

Space elevators do, of course, feature in science fiction novels and films. The July 2022 History Corner had a nice display of book covers from space elevator-related novels, while the November 2021 Corner contained the winning story from a 2005 SF competition on space elevators organized by the European Space Agency with prize money awarded by Brad Edwards. Staying with media, a couple of History Corners took a look at some of the many short videos, films, clips, and animations pertaining to space elevators and their history, construction, and use that were available on the Internet. Part 1 and Part 2 appeared in September and October 2020 respectively, with Part 3 in February 2021. The Corner for April 2023 detailed the search for the source of one particular space elevator image which was to accompany a special issue on space elevators in the British Interplanetary Society’s magazine Spaceflight in June 2023.

September 2023’s Corner showed that interest was still being maintained in space elevators across a wide spectrum of not just scientists and engineers, but also science fiction and space buffs, knowledgeable laypersons, and members of the general public. Indeed, as the February 2022 Newsletter showed, it seems even space agencies were now taking a closer look at the concept. NASA has, of course, always been involved--providing funding for Centennial Challenges and studies through NIAC, but it has recently been given presentations on graphene which is considered a material of choice for the tether, and also on the Galactic Harbour. The European Space Agency is also looking at a green road to space and the possibilities of solar power satellites in conjunction perhaps with a lunar space elevator.

To date, virtually all of the History Corners in the ISEC Newsletter have been written by David Raitt. If you have an idea for a Corner--and better still, are prepared to write it up, then please do feel free to contact the Newsletter Editor (newsletters@isec.org.)

Tether Materials

by Adrian Nixon, Board Member, ISEC

Could a Space Elevator Tether Burn?

In our previous newsletter, we explored the way tether materials such as graphene super laminate (GSL) respond to heat. Tether materials will be the strongest and most durable ever created. However, we all know that space is a dangerous business where the unexpected causes dramatic failures.

This thinking prompted a question for our risk analysis: Could a tether catch fire and burn, and if so, what conditions could cause this to happen?

A space elevator tether on fire

A space elevator tether on fire. Image credit: Adrian Nixon with multiple images from Bing Image Creator.

Graphene and carbon nanotubes are two of the candidate materials that have the necessary strength to make a space elevator tether. Many thousands of continuous layers of graphene or continuous strands of carbon nanotubes would be needed. For the purposes of this article, we’ll consider both substances to have similar responses to burning and will focus on graphene because there is more published research on this material.

graphene-and-carbon-nanotubes

A tether will be made from multiple layers of single-crystal large-area sheets of graphene called graphene super laminate (GSL). This multilayer graphene is analogous to graphite except in graphite the individual graphene layers are microns in size whereas in GSL they are centimetres, metres, and kilometres in size. This is an important distinction between graphite and GSL.

how-GSL-is-similar-to-and-different-from-graphite

We can derive some indication of the properties of GSL from those of graphite. For example: “graphite was first discovered in Cumbria in North England at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Although it resembled coal, it would not burn” [1].

The performance of GSL will be many times better than graphite because the graphene layers are continuous single crystals of graphene. Chemical reactions in graphene and carbon nanotubes occur at the edges (and vacancy defects). The edges in these materials are where reactions take place, and the basal plane is far less reactive [2]. Burning is a chemical reaction. GSL, having fewer edge sites where reactions can take place will be far more resistant to burning than graphite.

A paper published in 2014 [3], found that the basal plane of monolayer graphene did burn in oxygen at a surprisingly low temperature of 260°C. However, this required exposure to pure oxygen for five hours. Also, the supporting information for this paper revealed that Chemical Vapor Disposition (CVD) graphene on copper foil was used. The copper being removed with an oxygen plasma and transferred to a support for the testing. This etching and transfer process likely created vacancy defects on the basal plane and these vacancies would act as edges where oxidation could take place.

We also know that graphene resists reacting with oxygen at lower temperatures. Graphene-enhanced carbon fibre composite containers have successfully stored liquid oxygen without degradation [4].

Graphite, graphene, and by implication, carbon nanotubes are quite resistant to burning. This is not to say they will not burn, just that the conditions must be quite extreme. Work done by the Royal Society of Chemistry shows that both diamond and graphite can be made to burn in liquid oxygen by heating them to red hot and plunging them straight into the cryogenic liquid [5]. The temperature of red-hot graphite is around 800°C [6].

So, could a space elevator tether made from GSL, or ultra-long carbon nanotubes burn? Under nearly all circumstances, no. However, if the tether were to be heated to red hot and then sprayed continuously with liquid oxygen, it just might start burning. So, we can never say never. What we can say is that the risk of a tether being destroyed by fire is a very low probability, but high-impact event for our risk register.

References

1. Anon (2013). Graphite. [online] Earth Sciences Museum. Available at: https://uwaterloo.ca/earth-sciences-museum/resources/detailed-rocks-and-minerals-articles/graphite [Accessed 24 Nov. 2023].

2. Zahra Komeily-Nia, Qu, L. and Li, J. (2020). Progress in the Understanding and Applications of the Intrinsic Reactivity of Graphene‐Based Materials. Small science, 1(2), pp.2000026–2000026. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/smsc.202000026.

3. Yamada, Y., Kazumasa Murota, Fujita, R., Kim, J., Watanabe, A., Nakamura, M., Sato, S., Hata, K., Ercius, P., Ciston, J., Cheng, S., Kim, K., Regan, W., Gannett, W. and Zettl, A. (2014). Subnanometer Vacancy Defects Introduced on Graphene by Oxygen Gas. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 136(6), pp.2232–2235. doi: https://doi.org/10.1021/ja4117268.

4. Francis, S. (2019). Graphene technology enables composite cryogenic pressure vessels. [online] www.compositesworld.com. Available at: https://www.compositesworld.com/news/graphene-technology-enables-composite-cyogenic-pressure-vessels [Accessed 24 Nov. 2023].

5. Tretiakov, A. (2014). Burning diamond and graphite in liquid oxygen - Video Zoom. [online] MyRSC. Available at: https://my.rsc.org/video/318 [Accessed 24 Nov. 2023].

6. Zou, X.P., Abe, H., Shimizu, T., Ando, A., Tokumoto, H., Zhu, S.M. and Zhou, H.S. (2007). Carbon Nanotubes Synthesized by Rapid Quenching of Red-Hot Graphite Rod in Ethyl Alcohol. Solid State Phenomena, 121-123, pp.93–96. doi: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/ssp.121-123.93.

New ISEC Study

Apex Anchor: Full-Service
Logistics Transportation Node
at the Top of the Gravity Well

The International Space Elevator Consortium is initiating a 12-month research study to address the revolutionary characteristics of an Apex Anchor at the top end of a 100,000 km tethered Space Elevator. If you would like to contribute to this effort (in English with deadlines) please send a note to info@isec.org. This study will start with the assumptions and conclusions from the last four research studies accomplished recently. (Go to www.isec.org/studies.)

Introduction

The old “asteroid on the end of a rope” idea has gone the way of carriages drawn by horses. Once the Modern-Day Space Elevator emerged in 2020, the concept of an active transportation node at the Apex Anchor became obvious. The enhancement of the roles at an Apex Anchor showed how it will become a Full-Service Transportation Node for several significant missions centered around the “Logistics Center at the top of the Gravity Well.” The capability to raise all manner of space system components and segments 100,000 km using solar energy--as a Green Road to Space--enables the assembly of major space missions only dreamt of before. The inherent rapid release velocity (7.76 km/sec) at an Apex Anchor--and the ability to release every day of the year towards any destination, such as the Moon, Mars, and even Pluto--opens up the universe to humanity. These capabilities at the Full-Service Transportation Node lead to the enabling of missions such as:

  • A release point for interplanetary science missions with space systems of any size (assembled at the top of the gravity well) to any planet with daily windows.

  • Interplanetary human missions (after the development of full Operational Capability) with space systems of any size to any planet with daily windows.

  • Interplanetary full-service logistics, storage, and resupply capability with “just-in-time delivery.”

  • Cis-Lunar full-service logistics, storage, and release for supply missions with “just-in-time delivery.”

  • Astronaut Rescue staging area with storage of necessary rescue material such as oxygen, habitats, water, rocket fuel, power, and food. (Only 14 hours from the Moon.)

  • Planetary Defense asteroid detection sensors, with multiple 100,000 km tethers on each side of the Earth (206,000 km baseline) for stereoscopic vision of incoming asteroids from the Sun or out of the asteroid belts. In addition, the storage of planetary defense spacecraft would enable rapid response to near-term threats within 24 hours. Flexibility of responses can be accomplished by storing, and then rapid assembly of various defensive segments of planetary protection space systems, depending upon the threat.

These capabilities also lead to a vision that is revolutionary and illustrates the impacts of these transformational characteristics. The Apex Anchor is a Full-Service Transportation Node driving major aspects of Space Elevators’ acceptance.

Background

We must remember that Space Elevators are the transportation story of the 21st century. Reliable, routine, safe, and efficient access to space is close at hand. Space Elevators and their Galactic Harbours are an essential part of the global and interplanetary transportation infrastructure. The key here is that daily, green, routine, inexpensive, efficient, and massive movement of payloads to GEO and beyond--and release from other locations on Space Elevators--will allow high-speed launches throughout our solar system. The reality is when humanity decides to do off-planet activities, there will be a tremendous need for logistics support, movement of manufactured goods as well as transporting people [especially at low cost and routinely/daily]. The question on ISEC's table is: how can the strengths of space elevators’ new and unique capabilities providing a “train station” at 100,000 km altitude enable missions of all types while having little or no environmental effect on our planet?

Study Starting Points

When we look at the Moon and dream of spaceflight, we forget how extremely difficult it was to accomplish, both in energy and design complexity. Tsiolkovsky's rocket equation consumes so much mass to achieve orbit that, historically, we have been restricted--as to size and weight--what we can deliver. Now that we have decided to go to the Moon and on to Mars in a combined international, governmental, and commercial effort of great magnitude, we need to expand our vision of “how to.” It would seem that the establishment of a Full-Service Transportation Node with the ability to assemble, repair, build, and store at a location essentially beyond gravity would open up human movement beyond our planet. This study will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the Apex Anchor as a transformational space elevator characteristic. Expanding space access architectures to include space elevators will enable robust movement off-planet.

Revolutionary Characteristics

This new capability is revolutionary in approach, but evolutionary in scope. When Galactic Harbours are operational, the similarities to railroad operations will be remarkable. The following set of seven permanent transportation infrastructure characteristics will have the ability to enable customers’ missions. The transformation of space access will be similar to moving from small boats crossing a large river to a permanent infrastructure, like a bridge, moving traffic daily, routinely, safely, inexpensively, and with little environmental impact. Permanent space transportation infrastructures (space elevators) with Full-Service Transportation nodes at GEO and the Apex Anchor will enable missions by leveraging their strengths:

  • Unmatched delivery efficiencies as well as daily, routine, safe, and inexpensive

  • Unmatched massive movement (Initial Operational Capability (IOC) at 30,000 tonnes/yr with Full Operational Capability (FOC) 170,000 tonnes/yr)

  • Unmatched high velocity (starting at 7.76 km/sec at 100,000 altitude enables rapid transits to the Moon, Mars, and beyond)

  • As a Green Road to Space, it ensures environmentally neutral operations

  • Reduction of Rocket Fairing Design limitations

  • Assembly at the Top of the Gravity Well

  • Transforming the economics towards an infrastructure with access to more valuable, lucrative, stable, and reliable investments

Chapter Breakout

This initial look at a potential outline for the Apex Anchor study assures we have at least initial operations with daily release and a dynamically stable Space Elevator. This study addresses the full capability as well, with humans and the massive movement of logistics (a principal mission for the Apex Anchor after the initial deployment stage.) The preliminary chapter layouts start with:

Chapter 1: Introduction and Development Status of Space Elevators

Chapter 2: Break-out Characteristics of Apex Anchor

Chapter 3: Velocity Enhancements

Chapter 4: New Concept #1: Stability, Assembly, Storage

Chapter 5: New Concept #2: Operations and Stationary Missions          

Chapter 6: New Concept #3: Deployment (release at high velocities)

Chapter 7: Mission Support Summary

Chapter 8: Interplanetary Mission Example

Chapter 9: Study Conclusions and Recommendations

Around the Web

Here is a TED-Ed video that explains the basics of a space elevator. It is an excellent starting point that stimulates interest and curiosity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQhmsDkZhQA

After watching the above video on YouTube, the page suggested two videos by Bradley Edwards speaking for the Bloomberg Originals Channel.

From February 2022, this video is called, "Getting to Space Could Become a Lot Easier." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1lxjpjogcg

He follows up with an update video in January of this year with, "Space Elevators are Getting Closer to Reality." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lldv_u4R6BU

Upcoming Events

Atlanta Space Education Summit
Sponsored by ARES Learning
https://www.areslearning.com/atlanta
Saturday, February 24th, 2024
FCS Innovation Academy, Alpharetta, Georgia, USA

42nd International Space Development Conference
Sponsored by the National Space Society
https://isdc2024.nss.org/
Thursday, May 23rd, through Sunday, May 26th, 2024
Sheraton Gateway, Los Angeles, California, USA
Theme: “No Limits”

7th International Conference on Tethers in Space
Sponsored by Lassonde School of Engineering, York University
and the International Academy of Astronautics
https://lassonde.yorku.ca/conf/tis2024/
Sunday, June 2nd, through Wednesday, June 5th, 2024
Toronto, Canada

8th Annual Nanotechnology Conference
Sponsored by the Royal Society of Chemistry
https://www.rsc.org/events/detail/77700/8th-annual-nanotechnology-conference-nanomat2024
Sunday, August 25th, through Wednesday, August 28th, 2024
Hotel Arcotel Wimberger, Vienna, Austria

75th International Astronautical Congress
Sponsored by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF)
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
International Convention Centre, Sydney, Australia

77th International Astronautical Congress
Sponsored by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF)|
https://iac2026antalya.com/
Theme: “The World Needs More Space”
Proposed Dates: October 5th through October 9th, 2026
Antalya, Turkey

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