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May 10, 2005
Up, Up and away
I've mentioned the Space Elevator before, and the Space Elevator Blog has been on my blogroll since I started this blog. Today though, the frontrunner in the "slow" race to space is making news. Liftport group, based in Seattle is in the news talking about their carbon nanotube ribbon and the climber design they are working on.
Liftport plans to have their first lift in just under 5000 days, they're shooting for April 12th, 2018.
Check them out at Liftport.com and take a look around their site.
In other related Space Elevator news, NASA, who also wants to develop the Space Elevator has set up two contests for design issues related to the project. The Tether Challenge and the Power Beam Challenge are both part of President Bush's return to space initiative.
Both challenges are encouraging private entities to design a system that beats what NASA's engineers are proposing. If a private design team can beat the current NASA technology, they get $50,000. Not much in terms of cash, but the design will be worth millions. The contests will be conducted again in 2006 with a prize of $150,000. The goal is to keep the pressure on NASA engineers and infuse the project with new ideas as it moves forward. NASA is looking at 2010 as a date to begin construction of the elevator.
NASA has over $80 million set aside for what they call "Centennial Challenges", contests designed to bring more private sector research into the US Space Program. While not as flashy as the "X-Prize" the contests are great motivators for private engineers and university teams to get those thinking caps warmed up.
IF you have no clue what a Space Elevator actually is, take a look at this short video.
The NASA Space Elevator program is part of the Advanced Space Transportation office at the Marshall Space Flight Center, right here in Alabama. Yeah, we got more rocket scientists down here than anyplace else, not to mention the best public high school in the nation.
Yeah, that last one surprised the hell outta me too.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at May 10, 2005 10:06 AM
