Comments on Next Big Future: 2008 space elevator goals, 1 kilometer height

Michaelthanks for the details and articles on your...

2008-02-02T09:27:00.000-08:00

Michael

thanks for the details and articles on your experience.

There probably needs to be a competition and prize for setting up higher and higher test tracks. Those are non-trivial challenges.

P.S. If you are interested, I just linked to your ...

2008-02-02T04:25:00.000-08:00

P.S.

If you are interested, I just linked to your article, and added some additional comments on my blog, here: http://www.liftport.com/progress/wp/?p=1275

Thanks for your interest in the project. We appreciate the support. Take care. mjl

while these are not "competition lifters" and are ...

2008-02-02T03:46:00.000-08:00

while these are not "competition lifters" and are a little older versions, you can get a feel for some of this by looking at these videos:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=ElevatorToSpace

LiftPort Group climbed as high as 1500 feet, but then we had problems with the ribbon, and had to scrub the mission (ribbon was coming apart, and winding on the tread of the bot, and then the bot jumped its gears). But the goal was 1 mile! see the notes on the videos.

HOWEVER, this was a small 'bot compared to the ones for competition, and we used battery power, not lasers, for these video tests.

But this should give you an idea of the sway and motion of the system.

I too have significant concerns about this years proposed test. But i wish Spaceward (I used to be on the board there) and the rest of the teams the very best of luck. I am hopeful, but concerned. This challenge is very difficult, and worthy of a large prize. It would not surprise me at all, if there were a crater or two, when it is all over...

Take care. mjl

I agree that the test track needs to be set up in ...

2008-01-18T15:20:00.000-08:00

I agree that the test track needs to be set up in advance to ensure a smoothly run event.

Is it reasonable to expect that with the short dev...

2008-01-18T12:56:00.000-08:00

Is it reasonable to expect that with the short development time ahead, the games organization will go ahead just fine and the competition will happen without major problems?

Seems like an ambitious goal to realize in such a short time - to go from a 100 m tether to 1 km. Even the 100 m tether had problems in the 2007 competition.

First of all, I'd really like to see the systems demoed well in advance of the actual competitions so that if there are any problems, solutions can be devised.