La, Laura

Wierd Thoughts...

I have a general idea what the space elevator concept is, but I want to take this second to mention a strange dream I recently had... In the dream, I looked out a window and long cigar shaped craft was riding up into the air diagonally on what looked to be a focused beam of light ending from space all the way to the ground (I realize space elevators typically go 'straight up' and typically on a tether). In the dream I was totally lead to believe this could be a space elevator carrying humans.

The dream causes me to wonder if physicists will discover 'some other other way' (magnetism or something that works similar similar?) to move a car up and down before a solid tether becomes feasible... After all even the tether is sorta 'easier said than done'(?)
space

First Day of the 2008 Space Elevator Conference

Hey all,

Today was the first day of the 2008 Space Elevator Conference in Redmond, Washington! For those of you unable to make it Marc Bouchard at the Space Elevator Reference and Ted Semon at the Space Elevator Blog have great rundowns on their blogs. Check them out here:

http://www.spaceelevator.com/
http://www.spaceelevatorblog.com/

Join the space elevator discussion in the official space elevator yahoogroup:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/space-elevator/

Matt

screen follies

Looking into the mysteries of screen [1] I ran across this ..
In X-windows world screen inspired several minimalist windows managers that is usually bungled with linux mini-distributions.
Sure it's a typo. But I am not fully convinced that it is.


[1] Specifically, I wanted to modify the status screen to include the host name I was on. This appears [2] to be More Bother than I wanted to get into, so we'll just leave 'hostname' in the prompt where it belongs.

[2] For a number of reasons to arcane to get into here.
  • bdunbar

Defeat, sound of

This is what defeat sounds like ...

... in Phnom Penh former Cambodian prime minister Sirik Matak wrote to John Gunther Dean, the American ambassador, turning down his offer of evacuation:

Dear Excellency and Friend:

I thank you very sincerely for your letter and for your offer to transport me towards freedom. I cannot, alas, leave in such a cowardly fashion. As for you, and in particular for your great country, I never believed for a moment that you would have this sentiment of abandoning a people which has chosen liberty. You have refused us your protection, and we can do nothing about it. You leave, and my wish is that you and your country will find happiness under this sky. But, mark it well, that if I shall die here on the spot and in my country that I love, it is no matter, because we all are born and must die. I have only committed this mistake of believing in you [the Americans].

Please accept, Excellency and dear friend, my faithful and friendly sentiments.

S/Sirik Matak

Wikipedia notes Prince Sirik Matak and the officials that remained along with him, were executed by the Khmer Rouge on April 21, 1975, in Phnom Penh.

Cross Posted to The Daily Brief.
space

News Articles

There has been a lot of activity on the space elevator front in the past couple of months. Here are some articles to keep you up to date:

Russia Studies Exotic Lunar Elevator, Space.com, 12/04/06
Protecting Nasa's Prizes, MSNBC, 12/01/06
An elevator to space … out of this world?, Kansas City Star, 11/29/06
Space Elevator 2007 Competition Registration Open and new Rulebooks, Space Elevator Reference, 11/20/06
Interview with Ben Shelef, Space Elevator Blog, 11/20/06
Space elevator ride may kill humans due to ionizing radiation, Engadget, 11/14/06
Space elevators: 'First floor, deadly radiation!', New Scientist, 11/13/06
Onward (and upward), Rocky Mountain News, 11/11/06
New YouTube Space Elevator videos, Space Elevator Blog, 11/05/06
Actually, they really are rocket scientists, Toronto Star, 10/26/06
NASA's First Annual Space Elevator Competition ends with no winners, Engadget, 10/24/06
Robot climber comes oh-so-close to prize, MSNBC, 10/23/06
Tensions rise at space elevator challenge, New Scientist, 10/22/06
Canadians vie for space elevator victory, CBC News, 10/21/06
Nowhere to Go But Up, Wired.com, 10/19/06 (Videos)
Even on the ground, space elevators may have uses, New Scientist, 09/26/06
Nasa hopes to catch an elevator to space, Guardian, 09/03/06
Can high wi-fi boost space elevator?, MSNBC, 08/03/06
Interview with Dr. Bradley Edwards, KeithCU.com, 10/14/05
space

(no subject)

Two articles on Stephen Hawking's call for humans to colonize space in order to ensure the survival of the species. In the article it is suggested that a space elvator may be the means to reach these ends.
Will An 'Elevator To The Top' Ever Mean Truly To The Top, Investors.com
Hawking says space is the place...to live, News.com

A study by Nicola Pugno of the Polytechnic of Turin, Italy claims that Nanotubes may not reach the 62 gigapascals of tension when produced in mass quantity. This is the amount of tension that the ribbion would need to withstand to create a functioning space elevator.
Nanotubes Might Not Have the Right Stuff, Space.com

Jeff Bezos is using his millions he earned from Amazon.com to start up a new space transportation company called Blue Origin. The company is working to develop a "reusable, vertical-takeoff-and-landing rocket ship called the New Shepard."
Blue's Rocket Clues, MSNBC.com

Here is a review of the new Liftport book.
Book Review: Liftport: Opening Space To Everyone, Blogcritics.com

Not all bad news on the nanotube front.
Rice develops novel method to sort nanotubes by diameter, Rice.edu

Spaceward Foundation dangles another prize in $250,000 Telerobotic Challenge.
Spaceward Foundation and NASA create US$250,000 Telerobotic Challenge, Gizmag.com