EuroSpaceward was just awarded funding by The National Research Fund of Luxembourg to hold a workshop on space elevator climber and tether design primarily focusing on systems for entry in the US and German competitions. The tentative dates are Nov. 14-16, 2007 and the workshop will be held in a yet to be announced venue in Luxembourg.
This workshop is the first of its kind and will bring together teams from the competitions, private entities and engineers to examine current and future designs of climbers and tethers. The entries at the US games have performed well and each year brought improvements in the designs and systems though problems have still been evident and the current performance is still far from what is possible. At this early stage in the design it is good to take a hard look at the challenges and work through possible solutions - this is the focus of the Luxembourg workshop.
The goal of this event is to assist teams in their designs such that in 2008 and beyond the best climbers and tethers will be competing. This will occur through detailed discussions of last year's competitors, presentation of innovative designs, discussions of the limiting components of the systems and how to cope with the challenges. In addition the organizers hope to bring in private entities that may be willing to sponsor teams for the competition.
More details on the workshop will be posted when the become available.
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