Displaying items by tag: space elevator

LiftPort Group is a privately held Uited State corporation.

Founded in April, the company is focused on the construction of a space elevator using carbon nanotubes. LiftPort is focused on the implementation of space elevators, starting with a prototype Lunar Space Elevator (LSE).

Headquartered in Mount Pleasant, STAR, Inc. is a premier high-tech small business for South Carolina.

Since its founding in 1998, STAR has performed aircraft and spacecraft research for the Department of Defense, NASA, and NIAC. With in-house and SBIR funding for small business, STAR has developed new concepts for high-altitude, long-endurance aircraft; propellantless, maneuvering spacecraft; and space elevators for the Moon. STAR has also won the Small Business Administration's National Tibbetts Award for South Carolina.

The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) promotes the development, construction and operation of a Space Elevator (SE) as a revolutionary and efficient way to space for all humanity. We are made up of organizations and individuals from all around the world who share a vision of humanity in space.

ISEC is designed around four central pillars: Technology, Business, Legal and Outreach. Each pillar has several offshoot programs to encourage the development and sharing of knowledge surrounding a SE.

The idea for an organization like ISEC has been discussed for years but it wasn’t until the Space Elevator Conference in Redmond, Washington in July of 2008 that things became serious. Interest and enthusiasm for the SE reached critical mass at this Conference and, with additional SE conferences upcoming in both Europe and Japan it was felt that this was a good time to formalize an international organization. An initial set of Directors and Officers were elected and they immediately began the difficult task of unifying the disparate efforts of Space Elevator supporters world-wide. ISEC's first Strategic Plan was adopted in January of 2010 and it is now the driving force behind ISEC's efforts. This Strategic Plan calls for adopting a yearly theme (for 2010 it's "Space Elevator Survivability - Space Debris Mitigation") and focuses ISEC activities around it. 

A space elevator is a proposed type of space transportation system. 

Its main component is a ribbon-like cable (also called a tether) anchored to the surface and extending into space. It is designed to permit vehicle transport along the cable from a planetary surface, such as the Earth's, directly into space or orbit, without the use of large rockets. An Earth-based space elevator would consist of a cable with one end attached to the surface near the equator and the other end in space beyond geosynchronous orbit (35,800 km altitude). The competing forces of gravity, which is stronger at the lower end, and the outward/upward centrifugal force, which is stronger at the upper end, would result in the cable being held up, under tension, and stationary over a single position on Earth. Once deployed, the tether would be ascended repeatedly by mechanical means to orbit, and descended to return to the surface from orbit.

ref: The International Space Elevator Consortium

ref: other dedicated website: www.spaceelevator.com

ref: 2012 Annual Space Elevator Conference Set for August 25-27 

Obayashi Corporation is one of five major Japanese construction companies.

Established in 1892 in Osaka, Obayashi operates in Japan and other countries, especially Southeast Asia and Australia, as well as the United States and Europe.

In February 2012 it announced plans to build a space elevator by 2050.