I spoke with Brad Edwards briefly today who informed me there was a good crowd assembled this morning, most likely at least 60 people for the first few talks. There seems to be a lot of interest from Japan right now according to Brad.

Ted Semon over at the Space Elevator Blog has been covering the conference in person and you can keep up to date with events during the day through our Twitter Channel.

As well there seems to be some good media reports out today. They include;

Local coverage from Kiro TV, Elevator To Space More Than Just An Idea, and Alan Boyle of Cosmic Log fame, Will the Space Elevator Rise?, and from the SeattlePI, There's no stairway to heavens? Take the elevator, and this story from Network World, Going up: Slow progress on 'space elevator'.

Unfortunately I won't be able to attend any of the conference due to a very important family commitment. However I am working with several people including Brad Edwards on the upcoming re-launch of the new Space Elevator Reference, so stay tuned.

I look forward to hearing what progress has been made by the various groups through my contacts.

One last note, a couple of days The Independent newspaper out of the U.K. had a great writeup on the new novel coming out from Sir Arthur C. Clarke, The Last Theorem. It was finished by eminent author Frederik Pohl and includes a space elevator. One last plug for the space elevator from Sir Arthur.

If I am there, I would like to meet with anyone who is interested in taking the Space Elevator Reference to a whole new level. I've had some great volunteers contact me so far but I'm sure I'll need more. And because of family commitments I've been delayed in deploying the new site. The server is now ready and with some final touches the site will be ready to launch within a week.

Marc

The class submitted many great logos but the one below and which now graces this site was selected by myself and my business partner Keith Cowing. The logo selected was created by Joanne Chournos who is available for freelance work. If you need Joanne's services please contact me, her rates are very reasonable.

In other news the Space Elevator Reference will be changing it's format in the coming months. When I first started this site it was with the intent to collect and disseminate resources that would help the community in its goal in making the concept of a Space Elevator a reality.

Conference web site: http://spaceelevatorconference.org/

I had the privilege to meet Sir Arthur in 1997 in Sri Lanka, his home of 52 years. His creative mind inspired many people including myself. He will be missed but his creativity will live on through the people he inspired.

When I met him in 1997 it was for a variety of reason. One of them was to talk about the space elevator. He was so excited to talk about it. We met the at Colombo Swimming Club, he was just finishing up a swim and we had lunch. He was 79 at the time and his mind was as sharp as ever. When we sat down for lunch he presented me with a stack of material he had collected for me on the space elevator. I was astounded that he should do this for me. But this was the nature of Sir Arthur. He was a kind and giving man who would regale you with stories at every opportunity. I enjoyed my brief visit with him.

In 2002 through my work in the high arctic at the Haughton-Mars Project my SpaceRef business partner and I donated a greenhouse and I, with Sir Arthur's permission, named it the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse. The greenhouse now hosts a variety of research which will help future space explorers.

He was widely known as a premier science fiction writer and famous for his collaboration with Stanley Kubrick in taking his book 2001: A Space Odyssey to Hollywood. But he had many other accomplishments as well including a 1945 technical paper setting out the principles of satellite communication with satellites in geostationary orbits, something which would become a reality 25 years later.

But for those his read this blog Sir Arthur is best known for his book The Fountains of Paradise where popularized the concept of the Space Elevator and his 1981 technical paper The Space Elevator: 'Thought Experiment', or Key to the Universe?.

Today teams of scientists and engineers are working on making the Space Elevator a reality. Should this dream be realized it will mostly be attributed to Sir Arthur, and rightly so.

Marc Boucher

For more information on this new community service please visit the Space Elevator Twitter Community page.

Besides myself, Ted Semon of the Space Elevator Blog fame has agreed to have his blog posts appear in the Space Elevator Twitter channel so you can keep up to date with all those golden nuggets he finds.

Marc Boucher

I'll post more details as they arrive.

I wanted to give all of you an early announcement for the 2008 Space Elevator Conference. We have not had a Space Elevator “only” conference for 4 years.

This year the conference will be in Redmond, WA and will begin on Friday July 18th and will conclude on Sunday July 20th.

Please begin the process of spreading the word to your colleagues and Space Elevator contacts. The exact venue will be announced soon as will a suggested hotel in which to lodge.

Sincerely,
Bryan

For space elevator enthusiasts and professionals the service includes a Forum dedicated to the Space Elevator. Notable space elevator figures including but not limited to Spaceward's Ben Shelef and Brad Edwards will be contributing to the forum.

• Space Elevator Forum
• Spaceward Games 2008 Forum Topic

"Building on the results of the 2007 Challenge, the goals for 2008 have been set at 1 km height, 5 m/s minimum speed, for a prize level of $2M.

An intermediate prize level of $900k will be given for a speed of 2 m/s. Additionally, teams that can reach an altitude of 1 km at between 1 and 2 m/s will be awarded a prize of up to $50k.

The 1-km climb will be supported by a unique pyramid-anchored balloon system, providing the teams with a stable tether to climb on. Illustrations of the challenge over two potential sites are shown at www.spaceward.org/elevator2010-pb.html, showing the challenge as it would look if held over Meteor Crater in Arizona, and if held over the 2007 venue."

• Read the complete press release
• Discuss the Spaceward 2008 Games in the new On Orbit Space Elevator Forum

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Hello folks, and Happy New Year!

It's been a while since our last newsletter - seems that whenever something's going on in Space Elevator land, we're always too busy to write. :) Two months after the 2007 games, this is a good time to briefly reflect on this past year, and update you on our next steps for '08 and beyond.

In this newsletter:

A look back at 2007
A preview of our plans for 2008
A new partner
Carbon Nanotube news
2007:

For those who missed the real-time action, the official wrap-up of the 2007 Spaceward Games is posted online at www.spaceward.org/games07Wrapup.html. As usual, you can re-live the day-by-day coverage at the archives at Ted Semon's Space Elevator Blog and Marc Boucher's Space Elevator Reference.

The most significant result of the 2007 games, however, is not measured in units such as kilograms or in meters per second. What we saw in 2007 was a huge leap in the level of technology fielded by the teams. In particular, our two laser-based teams, USST and LaserMotive, designed and built complex advanced systems worthy of an aerospace project, and have acquired a set of capabilities that attracted industry interest to our competition. In terms of fulfilling the charter of the games, we could not have asked for more.

Looking back, you may remember that Space Elevator games did not exist before 2005. Unlike our role models – Solar car races and rocketry clubs, we did not have a rich tradition of games spanning tens of years to rely on. We started practically from scratch, and we are immensely proud of how our teams have grown.

Having wrapped up the games, our next order of business was charting the course for 2008. The immediate choices we looked at were keeping the challenge goals the same as in '07, doubling the speed or height requirements, or doubling both. However, after gathering feedback from existing and potential teams, the Space Elevator community, and relevant industry experts, we decided to go for something a bit more grandiose...

2008:

In broad strokes, the goal of the Space Elevator games is to bring the Space Elevator closer to reality. The goal of the power beaming challenge is to promote power beaming technology. We think that the time is ripe now to move the competition to the next level, addressing real-world power beaming scenarios where the minimum requirements for such systems start at the km range and kWatt power levels.

There were approximately 50 attendees from all over Europe, the U.S., Canada and Japan. The talks covered specifics of what was successful at the recent games and where issues arose in the entries, plans for the 2008 games and discussions of the rapid development of carbon nanotubes which are widely expected to be the material to beat at the games in the future. ...

Andrews Chief Technology Officer Dana Andrews said, “LaserMotive had a promising start this year, and we expect them to come back strong next year in the 2008 competition. We believe their concept is the right approach to powering a planetary-scale elevator.”

• Each page measures 11" x 8.5"
• Measures 11" x 17" when hung on wall
• Full bleed dynamic color
• 100 lb cover weight high gloss paper, wire-o bound
• January 2008 - December 2008, 2009 preview, US holidays marked

"We did have a brief incident with a shorting wire (the source of that smoke in the one photo), but we were able to repeatedly power our lasers and get power from our PV array.

Our issues had to do with vehicle electronics. Specifically, some last-minute changes made our motor controller stop working. On our second attempt that night, we're pretty sure that the vehicle tried to climb, but the guy holding the belay line wound up holding the vehicle down. He was outside the safety curtains and hence couldn't see in. He was new and didn't know enough about the system or the belay line, and we just didn't communicate properly at midnight in the rain. It is, of course, extremely frustrating that holding the bottom belay line prevented us from qualifying, but we'll learn from our mistakes and improve our system and procedures for next year."