International Space Elevator Consortium
September 2023 Newsletter

In this Issue:

President’s Corner
Space Elevator Conference Photo Gallery
History Corner
RIS Conference
Pursuit of Interstellar Missions
New Transformational “Customers”
Technical Intern
Tether Materials
Around the Web
Upcoming Events
Contact Us/Support Us

President's Corner

by Pete Swan

A Very Successful ISEC Conference

It has been two weeks since our very successful conference in Chicago. How do you measure success? Of course, it is all judgmental – but from my viewpoint as President of ISEC, I really enjoyed and appreciated the people who orchestrated the conference, the ones who showed up, the content of the presentations, but mostly, the personal interchange between attendees. We had quite a few who traveled far as well as several from the local area. The key was, we had a valuable time both in personal relationships renewed or started anew and, in the content discussed during the weekend. In the near future, Karyn will have the charts and videos ready for those who attended. [Attendees will get advance viewing as they paid the registration fee.] We will open them up to the general public in the future on our YouTube account and our own ISEC website. They all represented original thinking and discussed topics that are “hot” as we go forward. In addition, we have several new members and volunteers for ISEC near-term tasking. Wonderful experiences during those two days!

Out of these discussions came three items high on my priority list:

First: We have a new Director of Education, Jason Arnold. He has a great history as a teacher, professor, and dean at several institutions. Jason has a commitment towards the success of space elevators. He had “done his homework” before showing up at the conference and concluded that he could help ISEC in both academic and outreach. He was in the middle of so many discussions during the two days trying to catch up to where we were and had some innovative ideas about where we could go in this arena. He is developing an outline of a plan and, with the help of our other teammates on this new working group, will create the direction for ISEC over the next few years. Thanks for volunteering Jason! Stay tuned to this channel as there will definitely be more to come!

[Editor's Note: Jason will be speaking at the virtual Space Education Summit in November. See "Upcoming Events" for more details.]

Second: We had several discussions around the area – both in the middle of presentations and during the “off time” discussions over coffee and lunch – on the topic of dynamics and simulation of Space Elevators. As such, we have created a team to support the needs of the community. I have always called the ISEC development concept - the Gold Standard of Space Elevator simulations - with the purpose of “validating” and checking out other simulations within the community. ISEC becomes the expert and corporations, universities, and governments would come to us for comparison and suggestions. This team is led by Dennis Wright and is being formed during the next few weeks. Thanks, Dennis, for leading this!

Third: We have another new ISEC member, and she will be a part of our effort to work with the NSS education activities. Frances Dellutri is the NSS Director of Education and handles many activities that are parallel with our future growth. Currently, she is helping ISEC become part of the NSS SpacEdge Academy with its Center of Educational Excellence. ISEC will assist SpacEdge Academy in their development of lesson plans and educational contests by enabling them to understand the "body of knowledge" residing on the ISEC website. Of course, this activity ties into Jason’s Education and Outreach working group and our active team leading the next Academic Challenge. Thanks, Frances, for joining us!

All in all, a fantastic weekend of renewing friendships and creating new ones! I am already looking forward to next year’s conference!

Pete

2023 Space Elevator Conference Photo Gallery

History Corner

by David Raitt, ISEC Chief Historian

Interest in Space Elevators
Still Prevailing!

It is rather gratifying to come across people, other than ISEC members, writing about or commenting on space elevators. It shows that the concept is still noteworthy today and that others - be they scientists and engineers, science fiction or space buffs, knowledgeable laypersons or just members of the general public - are interested in the topic and willing (and able) to discuss matters arising. While I still find older articles and papers that I didn’t know before when the Space Elevator History book was being compiled, there are still new items being added to the literature (including videos) all the time.

For example, a month or so ago, there was an article by Kristin Houser published on 24 June 2023 in an installment of Future Explored, a weekly web guide to world-changing technology. Entitled "Space elevators are inching closer to reality", the well-illustrated article (to which you could also listen) briefly covers the history and personalities involved as well as the latest developments and materials research and has some interesting graphics and links. The question posed though, is can we build a space elevator before we no longer need it?

Just days later, on 28 June 2023, on the New Space Economy site, there was an article with the title “Space elevators: the future of space transportation?” The premise is that the space elevator is an ambitious idea that promises a radical overhaul of space transportation which might just hold the key to truly affordable and efficient access to space. Following a brief summary of the concept and basic operation of a space elevator there is a useful historical overview and timeline, a review of potential benefits over traditional rocket-based systems, and a discussion of the technical and non-technical challenges that need to be overcome. Looking into the future of space elevators, the conclusion is that overcoming the obstacles will require major advancements in several areas, but if these can be overcome, space elevators could represent a paradigm shift in space transportation.

A slightly older article from 2021, with a lot of videos, graphics, and links, on the Mashable site is by Chris Taylor who opines in “Loving an Elevator” that the space elevator has been a dream of scientists for centuries and a new design may finally make it a reality - at least, by the next century. So, in an open letter to readers in the 22nd century, there is a chatty who’s who history of space elevators with interviews with some erstwhile leaders in the field and discussion of Chinese and Japanese efforts, skyhooks, Zhu’s rubber band for stabilizing a partial space elevator, and the problem of space debris and the need to clear it up. In this context, mention is made of a South Korean film released on Netflix on 5 February 2021 called Space Sweepers which features space elevators.

Set in the year 2092, a crew of space sweepers live on an orbiting planet created by UTS Corporation after Earth becomes uninhabitable. UTS owns pretty much everything in space, including a tethered space elevator, which transports the workers up from the Earth’s polluted surface to a UTS transport station from where they can begin collecting space junk. Indeed, the opening scenes show a space elevator that looks like a beam of (laser?) light up which peopled climber cars are ascending and rival space vehicles and crews harpooning space debris. The film, touted as the first Korean space film, won several awards for its technical and visual effects; however, Arius Reposa writing on Medium.com noted that the "all-round thriller may just fail in a bid for a masterpiece" partly because a major plot device that lacked context was the space elevator itself. He noted that the concept was not new - indeed as early as 1895, there were proposals on how to bring about elevators in Earth’s orbit. However, he wondered how the elevator reenters Earth’s atmosphere. Exiting from the surface would not heat up the elevator, but going back down was another thing. It was also not really established how the society of 2092 saw it more practical to operate space elevators, or how they were constructed.

Depending on how the ratings went, it was mooted already in early 2021 that there might be a Space Sweepers 2 in the offing in 2023, with a new home for humanity being formed on Mars (shades of Elon Musk?) Whether it was to feature a space elevator, though, was not mentioned as part of the synopsis. Apart from the first flurry of speculation in 2021, there seems to have been little further progress or announcement of a sequel.

The film was also discussed on Reddit under the heading "space elevator from new movie Space Sweepers.” Redditors commented:

“Interesting. Rather than a physical tether, it looks like they're using a beam of light (?) but I'm not sure how the climber is connected to it or propelling. Some sort of light sail?”

“I was going to post about a series of vertical hydrogen ‘airships’ tethered via conventional steel cables for the lower portion of a space elevator till I looked at how quickly atmospheric density decreases with altitude. It would only be good for a tiny fraction of the distance required. Space elevators are truly amazing yet daunting unicorns!”

“Maybe it's using magnetism to push away from the ground and the beam of light somehow keeps it from going off course. The beam could be a high powered laser that is pushing against the insides of the ring, directing it.”

Another site is still being commented on. The question posed on 18 May 2018 on the Metaculus site was “Will a space elevator successfully be built on Earth before 2100?” This question will resolve as Yes if a working space elevator is constructed on Earth before 1 January 2100 and is maintained in operation for at least 365 days. To date, it seems there have been 526 predictions from 323 forecasters. There are some quite detailed discussions and thoughts on the economics, capabilities, and materials of space elevators. A similar question on the same site asks: Will either a space elevator or a skyhook transport at least 10 metric tons (cumulative payloads) before 2046?

And since we have mentioned South Korea above, it is also worth noting that one of South Korea’s foremost sci-fi writers, Djuna, has just written a story entitled “Counterweight: A Novel” which was published on 11 July 2023 by Pantheon - the first of his novels translated into English. Translated by Anton Hu, the novel is about the race by rival forces to retrieve a load of data residing in the space junk (the counterweight) at the end of the space elevator’s cable. Part psychological thriller, part detective story, the book has garnered some good reviews. It appears that the story was originally conceived by Djuna as a low-budget science fiction film. In a very rare interview with WIRED’s Kate Knibbs on 11 July 2023, Djuna said that ten years ago, he had a discussion with director Kyu-dong Min about making a mid-budget sci-fi movie. That’s when he thought of the space elevator, which he thought was a grand and beautiful idea that’s been in science fiction before. But he believed it was not exactly cinematic, and there’s nothing much you can do with it in a movie. He wrote a short story around the idea as a proof-of-concept and turned that out into a novel later so he could add details. But he didn’t really consider this novel as having been written for an eventual movie adaptation. It is thus interesting to speculate whether the author was inspired by Space Sweepers or vice versa given that space junk forms a major part of the novel!

Clearly, space elevator history is still in the making with new novels, films, video clips, journalistic analysis, scholarly papers, and general discussion in forums being generated on a fairly regular basis. What is disappointing though, in my view, is that the work and efforts of ISEC and its volunteers are usually overlooked in the popular print and online press and this needs to be addressed somehow.

Reinventing Space Conference

The British Interplanetary Society (BIS) are again organising their 20th annual Reinventing Space Conference, to be held Wednesday, October 11th through Friday, October 13th, 2023, in the new “Spaces at the Spine” Convention Center in Liverpool, UK.

This year’s theme will be “The Evolving Architecture for NewSpace.” https://www.bis-space.com/reinventingspace/

Peter Robinson will be speaking on Friday during the afternoon session on “Settlement in Space; Technological and Architectural Challenges.” His topic is:

The Ultimate Architecture—The Space Elevator

His presentation will cover the origins of the SE concept, including popularisation in 1989 by early BIS member Arthur C Clarke, and an update on where we are today based on 2023 ISEC and IAC conference material.

The program for the event can be viewed at: https://www.bis-space.com/reinventingspace-programme/  

Pursuit of Interstellar Missions

ISEC President, Pete Swan, was invited to present at a remarkable gathering of scientists investigating “How do we collect technological signatures from distant planets?” “How do we identify exo-planets?” And the 100 Year Starship organization’s question, “How do we prepare to go to the next star, and can we do it within the next 100 years?” The event occurred Sunday, June 28th, and Monday, June 29th, at the University of California-Santa Cruz. Pete’s talk was titled “Unmatched Velocity for Huge Spacecraft—Going Interstellar.” The purpose was to show how Space Elevators will revolutionize the arena of space systems going to planets in our solar system and toward the next star. His talk focused on the assembly of large spacecraft (10,000 tonnes +) released at great speeds (>20 km/sec) from the tip of a 163,000 km high Apex Anchor. His abstract started with “Can you imagine?” to ensure that the audience stretched their curiosity. He showed them how assembly at the top of the gravity well allowed customers (planetary/interstellar scientists) to build almost any size spacecraft and release them with remarkable velocity (double or triple Voyager’s capability). The organizations supporting this conference can help the reader understand the look for techno-signals in newly discovered exo-planets (around 5,000 now). ISEC showed them the revolutionary strengths of space elevators, enabling them to reach farther and faster.

If a YouTube video becomes available, we will provide the link in a future newsletter.

New Transformational “Customers”

by Pete Swan

ISEC needs friends in all kinds of places. Who knows where our critical support will come from? As such, lecturers on the Modern-Day Space Elevators, when asked, can multiply our supporters when they see the magnitude of Space Elevators’ future impact. I just gave a lecture at the “Welcome to the Neighborhood” sponsored by the Breakthrough Discuss activity (a yearly conference by Breakthroughinitiatives.org) titled “Unmatched Velocity for Huge Spacecraft – Going Interstellar.” The purpose was to show the interstellar community (and by way of fallout, the intra-solar system crowd) that we can launch from an Apex Anchor with enough velocity to escape from our solar system (163,000 km high Apex Anchor – gives you escape velocity) – and this is the crucial addition – even with a huge spacecraft (28,825 tonnes brought up to and assembled at the Apex Anchor at 79 tonnes a day). Our only model for interstellar travel is Voyager at 815 kg (notice they do not use tonnes) going slowly outside our solar system while not having enough vehicle power to communicate with home base. We can beat Voyager with velocity (only nine years to get to where Voyager is now (it has taken 42 years) and with a spacecraft big enough to have propulsion and power for half a century). These transformational characteristics can make a difference when talking with new, potential customers. We change the paradigm in all things space (at GEO and beyond) and need to spread the word. Here is a chart that puts it all in perspective for the audience.

This concept of interstellar flight maximizes the use of four of the transformational characteristics of a permanent space access transformational infrastructure:

+ Assembly at the Top of the Gravity Well

+ 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; and, for Interstellar 163,000 km Apex Anchor garage releases with enough velocity to escape solar system)

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

Pete

Technical Intern

by Dennis Wright

This year, ISEC introduced a technical internship focused on space elevator simulation.  Aidan Hurley-Kalici, who is currently starting his third year at the University of Buffalo, spent the summer developing visualization software for the simulation. He is an aspiring aerospace engineer and his favorite programming languages are Python and C++.

Working under his mentor, Dennis Wright, Aidan put together the first display modules for examining the motion of the space elevator tether.  Users of the software will be able to switch from one view of the space elevator to another, expand or contract the view or look at specific segments of the tether.  This visualization will be essential for understanding the behavior of the tether and checking the calculations that predict its motion.

Aidan presented his work this August at the International Space Elevator Conference in Chicago, and if his studies permit, will continue to work with the ISEC simulation group in the future.

Tether Materials

by Adrian Nixon, Board Member, ISEC

Tether Materials Enabling
Ultra-high Buildings

There is continual competition around the world to construct the highest skyscraper.  At the time of writing the world record holder for the tallest building is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai at 828 metres (2,717 ft) [1].  In Saudi Arabia the Jeddah Tower is planned to be the world’s first one-kilometre-high building [2].

This raises an intriguing question. How high could a building be built? 

William Baker, the top structural engineer at Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, the firm of architects that designed the Burj Khalifa, was interviewed by Bloomberg about the structural limits of tall buildings.  In the interview, a height of around 8,849 metres (5.5 miles high) was estimated to be the technical limit with today’s technology [3].

The predominant problem constraining the height of tall buildings is the elevator transport system. Most tall buildings need two or more elevator drops.  This means a visitor must change from one elevator to another halfway up to reach the very top.  The reason for this is the limitation of the steel used to make the elevator ropes.

Elevator manufacturer Kone has developed a new carbon fibre material they call Ultra Rope, and this is planned to be used to make a single elevator drop on 1000m for the Jeddah Tower [4].

Reaching the heights of ultra-tall buildings several kilometres high will need technology beyond Ultra Rope. The limitation is the tensile strength of the material. The higher the tensile strength, the higher you can build an elevator. 

Elevator steel wire ropes have a tensile strength of 1.77 GPa [5]. 

Carbon fibre has a tensile strength of up to 7 GPa [6]. 

This is where graphene comes into play with a tensile strength of 130 GPa [7]. 

A new elevator technology based on layers of single-crystal graphene could enable the ultra-strong elevators needed for these world record breaking buildings.  An elevator material made from 12,333 layers of single-crystal graphene could support an elevator of 20 tonnes for heights of more than 10 kilometres [8].

Finding market applications for graphene technology that enable the next generation of ultra-high skyscrapers will be a useful step along the way to generate a return on investment for graphene tether manufacturers.

A construction application inside tall buildings would help prove the technology and ease construction engineers towards the goal of building the biggest structure of all, the space elevator. 

References:

1. Guinness World Records (2009). Burj Khalifa: The tallest building in the world. [online] Guinness World Records. Available at: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/hall-of-fame/burj-khalifa-tallest-building-in-the-world [Accessed 27 Aug. 2023].

2. Roos, D. (2022). Will the Jeddah Tower, World’s Tallest Building, Ever Be Finished? [online] HowStuffWorks. Available at: https://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/civil/jeddah-tower.htm [Accessed 27 Aug. 2023].

3. Berg, N. (2012). Is There a Limit to How Tall Buildings Can Get? [online] www.bloomberg.com. Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-08-16/is-there-a-limit-to-how-tall-buildings-can-get. [Accessed 27 Aug. 2023].

4. Barr, J. (2019). Elevator speed - Building the Skyline. [online] buildingtheskyline.org. Available at: https://buildingtheskyline.org/tag/elevator-speed/ [Accessed 27 Aug. 2023].

5. Anon (2019). ELEVATOR STEEL WIRE ROPES for North America. [online] www.iphglobal.com. Available at: https://www.iphglobal.com/uploads/downloads/505134001570111159.pdf [Accessed 27 Aug. 2023].

6. Mirdehghan, S.A. (2021). Fibrous polymeric composites. Engineered Polymeric Fibrous Materials, pp.1–58. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-824381-7.00012-3.

7. Lee, C., Wei, X., Kysar, J.W. and Hone, J. (2008). Measurement of the Elastic Properties and Intrinsic Strength of Monolayer Graphene. Science, [online] 321(5887), pp.385–388. doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1157996.

8. Nixon, A., Knapman, J. and Wright, D.H. (2023). Space elevator tether materials: An overview of the current candidates. Acta Astronautica, [online] 210. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2023.04.008.

Around the Web

Charlie Krone has a submission for your review:

“The Master of Space Operations program at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University was designed by Dr. Andy Aldrin based on interviews with industry leaders. Among the course offerings are Earth Observation and Remote Sensing, The Satellite Communications Industry, and Space Law and Policy, to name a few. The contents are highly practical and encourage a big-picture perspective of the New Space Economy. For my Launch Industry class, I decided on a Space Elevator business, despite my professor's protests that I would not be able to meet the criteria for the class (spoiler alert: I did!).

“Although I have learned much since my initial proposal, I would like to present my first attempt to outline a space elevator business I call SpaceTrack, with the goal of bringing to the world ‘Space Without Compromise’".

Alejandro Forero is being featured for the fourth time in the newsletter. (For previous mentions, see March 2023, June 2023, and July 2023) He has been prolific with his video productions. This one is called “Space Elevator: Climbers with Today’s Technology.”

While on his YouTube channel, you can also check out his other features on the Space Elevator.

Upcoming Events

74th International Astronautical Congress
Sponsored by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF)
https://www.iafastro.org/events/iac/iac-2023/ 
Theme: “Global Challenges and Opportunities: Give Space a Chance”
Monday, October 2nd through Friday, October 6th, 2023
Baku, Azerbaijan

20th Reinventing Space Conference
Sponsored by the British Interplanetary Society
https://www.bis-space.com/reinventingspace/
Theme: “The Evolving Architecture of NewSpace”
Wednesday, October 11th through Friday, October 13th, 2023
Liverpool, U.K.

Space Education Summit
Sponsored by the Human Space Program
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/space-education-summit-tickets-675544621147
This online event is free!

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

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, 2024Z
Milan, Italy

76th International Astronautical Congress
Sponsored by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF)
Monday, September 29th through Friday, October 3rd, 2025
Sydney, Australia

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