The Space Elevator Blog

ISEC awards its first prize

Ted Semon — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 05:48:57 +0000

Gaylen R. Hinton is the winner of the very first prize awarded by the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC). His paper, ‘Seven Deadly Assumptions about Space Elevators‘ was awarded an ‘Honorable Mention’ in the Artsutanov Prize award category. Gaylen received a framed Honorable Mention certificate, signed by both Yuri Artsutanov and ISEC Prize Chair Peter Swan. [...]

The Space Elevator and the Strong Tether Challenge makes the news…

Ted Semon — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 17:48:25 +0000

The local (Seattle, Washington) NBC affiliate is KING-TV. They sent a crew to film Yuri and Jerome’s arrival at Sea-Tac on Thursday and another crew to film events, including the Strong Tether Challenge, at yesterday’s first day of the Space Elevator Conference. A segment on these topics made both the afternoon and evening news on KING-TV. [...]

Results from the 2010 Strong Tether Challenge

Ted Semon — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 05:39:51 +0000

In a word, disappointing. No team’s entry seriously challenged for the prize. No team’s entry performed even to 10% of what was needed to win the prize. Even with three teams entering carbon-nanotube or carbon-nanotube-reinforced entries, no visible, forward progress was made. However, in another sense, progress WAS made. Because of the way that the rules have [...]

The other two entries

Ted Semon — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 23:13:28 +0000

Here are pictures of the other two entries in the Space Elevator - Strong Tether Challenge. The two loops are from the same competitor. In one of my earlier posts, I showed a nanotube thread - this is the end result of them (Spaceward as sent multiple threads) being wound into a loop. The ‘long, shiny thing’ [...]

uStream TV ready to go for Strong Tether Competition

Ted Semon — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:47:48 +0000

All hail Maurice Franklin from Microsoft for coming in at the last minute and rescuing the uStream TV broadcast of the upcoming Strong Tether Competition - Thanks Maurice! The URL to follow this is http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-centennial-challenge—strong-tether-competition. The feed is live now, you can see people setting up - it will probably be on and off between now and [...]

Another Tether entry

Ted Semon — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 18:35:07 +0000

Just in the past few minutes, the third tether entry in the Strong Tether competition confirmed that they will compete. A picture thumbnail of the nanotube loop being entered is included in this post (click on it for a full-size version). As you can see, this has little in common with the meter-sized loops from previous [...]

Carbon nanotubes are HERE

Ted Semon — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:45:16 +0000

The picture thumbnail is of one of the entries in today’s Space Elevator Games - Strong Tether Challenge. This thread has now been wound into a loop and will be put on the “Tether Torture Rack” in today’s competition. I still don’t have the uStream details yet, but hope to have them in the next hour or [...]

Yuri Artsutanov and Jerome Pearson are HERE

Ted Semon — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 23:34:13 +0000

Today I was very privileged to help welcome Yuri Artsutanov and Jerome Pearson to Seattle. Everybody’s connections were on time so everyone showed up on time. Peter Swan, ISEC Director and Vice-President arrived first this morning. Jerome Pearson arrived shortly thereafter and they waited behind Security for Yuri to appear. He and Eugene Schlusser (Yuri’s translator [...]

Latest updates on the Strong Tether Challenge

Ted Semon — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 06:09:17 +0000

Ben Shelef, CEO of the Spaceward Foundation, organizers of the Space Elevator Games, arrived in Seattle / Redmond today. He tells me that there will be at least two contestants, and possibly a third, in this year’s Strong Tether Challenge. All of the contestants are bringing entries made out of carbon nanotubes. This is über-mega-cool. In [...]

Results from Japan’s 2010 JSETEC Competition

Ted Semon — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 23:05:04 +0000

The Japan Space Elevator Association (JSEA) held its 2nd annual Japan Space Elevator Technical & Engineering Competition this past weekend. I received this email from Shuichi Ohno, president of JSEA: We finished our JSETEC competition 2 days ago. 15 teams bring 16 climbers. Each team tried 1-3 times. Champion is Kanagawa University team. (Speed was not high, but safety [...]