Space Elevator Journal Update

[Space Elevator Journal]

Space Elevator Journal Update

• New Space Debris from Chinese Anti-Satellite Weapon Test

  Posted: 19 Jan 2007 12:22 PM CST

  Space debris already causes major problems in space elevator design and space operations and the situation just got worse.
  
  Aviation Week & Space Technology reporter Craig Covault says the January 22 issue will carry an article detailing reports of a "a major new Chinese military capability" in the form of an Anti-Satellite (ASAT) weapon.
  
  Covault's report explains as-yet unconfirmed intelligence agency reports indicate China performed a successful ASAT weapons test at more than 500 mi. altitude destroying an aging Chinese weather satellite target with a kinetic kill vehicle launched on board a ballistic missile.the attack is believed to have occurred at about 5:28 p.m. EST Jan. 11.
  
  "Details emerging from space sources indicate that the Chinese Feng Yun 1C (FY-1C) polar orbit weather satellite launched in 1999 was attacked by an ASAT system launched from or near the Xichang Space Center ...as the weather satellite flew at 530 mi. altitude 4 deg. west of Xichang located in Sichuan province ... a major Chinese space launch center.
  

  The test, if it occurred as envisioned by intelligence source, could also have left considerable space debris in an orbit used by many different satellites."
  

  If the Chinese can shoot down satellites can they shoot down a space elevator climber?

  

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[Space Elevator Journal]

Space Elevator Journal Update

• US Government Questions China on Satellite Kill

  Posted: 20 Jan 2007 11:55 PM CST

  Washington, DC -- On January 11, 2007 China destroyed one of its old weather satellites by launching a kinetic energy device from a ballistic missile fired from the ground leaving hundreds of pieces of debris orbiting the earth in the path of existing satellites and, potentially, the space elevator (SE).
  
  The Space Elevator Journal was conceived to cover not only the technical aspects of the SE but the issues that affect it and near-Earth real estate. Watching how the various governments and agencies react gives us an idea of how they will work for/against each other in the future. An area that is sure to heat up as space becomes more valuable in the years to come.
  
  In this excerpt of a January 19, 2007 US State Department daily press briefing Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey outlines the US governments policies on the issue and response to date in response to questions from various reporters.
  
  "U.S. policy is that all countries should have a right to peaceful access to space ... simply because so much of the world we live in today is dependant on space-based technology, communications in particular. We certainly are concerned by any effort, by any nation, that would be geared towards developing weapons or other military activities in space. That's absolutely contrary [to our policies]. So we have raised our concerns with the Chinese Government ... both here in Washington and in Beijing. I think you've seen comments from the Japanese Government as well as from Australian Prime Minister Downer and I think several other governments as well raising these same issues.
  
  We don't want to see a situation where there is any militarization of space. We certainly don't want to see a situation in which even tests of this kind that produce extensive amounts of space debris have the potential for disturbing or accidentally disrupting communications satellites or other kinds of space vehicles that are out there. So certainly this is an issue that I think is of general concern not only to us but to the broader international community and we'll be looking to get some more information from the Chinese about it.
  
  "We've been on record previously I think as saying that there are concerns about the level of transparency in China's military and [the satellite kill ] fits in with this pattern. We would like to see and understand and know more about what they're really trying to accomplish here.
  
  The US conducted similar tests in the 1980's and Casey was questioned as to why the US can do it and the Chinese can't. His response portends the potential for conflict caused by the growing importance of space.
  
  "I think there's two factors you might want to take a look at. The first is the fact that 22 years ago, there was a Cold War ... between the United States and the Soviet Union ... [which] dictated. I think, quite a different policy on the part of the U.S. that exists now.
  
  "More importantly, though, I think you need to look at the development of space in those past 22 years. The extent to which countries not only the United States, but countries throughout the world are dependent on space-based technologies, weather satellites, communications satellites and other devices to conduct modern life as we know it. And so the consequences of any kind of activity like this are significantly greater now than they were at that time.
  
  Reporter: "Since you don't think anybody should be engaged in such kind of activities, will the United States foreswear or say it won't do this, or do you wish to reserve the right to do so?"
  
  MR. CASEY: "Arshad, my understanding is there are no plans or intentions on the part of the United States to engage in such activities." ... there's always concern whenever there's debris in space, regardless of the cause, for the potential impact it might have on commercial satellites on manned space missions like the space shuttle, on the international space station, on anything that's potentially up there. You've certainly seen, given the history of some of the events of manned space flight, that small things can cause very big problems."
  
  It'll be interesting to watch this unfold. As space activities increase and their relative importance to those back on Earth grows, will we simply extend territorial thinking into space? I'm hoping the SE is too big and important a project to be left to any one country or vested interest and we set aside our terrestrial differences and humanity climbs up the gravity together.
  
  View Video

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• Oberg says Chinese Satellite Killer has Limited Powers

  Posted: 20 Jan 2007 11:52 PM CST

  You may know James Oberg as NBC News' space analyst using his 22 years experience in NASA mission control to add context to technical issues. In another of his frequent contributions to the IEEE Spectrum blog he puts some perspective on China's anti-satellite technology.
  
  The missile used to destroy the satellite was a 'kinetic kill' device - it had no explosives. The satellite was destroyed by the force of the collision.
  
  Oberg points out that the head-on collision between the missile and its target sums the velocity of the two objects. The satellite's LEO orbit speed is around 28 000 km/hr, adding the missile's speed "creates a hypersonic shock wave that propagates from the inside of the target outward and, at the outer edge, shreds the target into metallic confetti that moves away at up to hundreds of meters per second."

  He goes on to say the satellite was an easy target whose position, orbit and velocity were known in advance.
  

  "The Chinese targeted a low-orbiting, obsolete, weather satellite, where the kinetic kill energy was very great. However, the really strategic satellites fly much higher—the navigation network is 20 000 km up, and the communications constellations are in a geosynchronous arc at 40 000 km. At geosynchronous altitudes, the orbital velocities are so much lower that the impact energy would be only about a tenth as high as in last week's test.

  Distance introduces a second burden: terminal navigation. When a target satellite is close to the Earth, ground radars can track it and relay final course corrections, both to the rocket during its ascent and to the kill vehicle, once it has been deployed on its hoped-for collision course. Radar operates at an inverse fourth power law, which means that for the Chinese system to aim many times farther than low Earth orbit—as it would have to do to track objects geosyncronously—the demands on a ground-based radar would be simply impossible."

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[Space Elevator Journal]

Space Elevator Journal Update

• Super Honeycomb CNT's: New Hope for Space Elevator Tether?

  Posted: 21 Jan 2007 11:59 AM CST

  Beijing -- Hope for the space elevator was set back when Nicola Pugno of Politecnico di Torino published a study in August 2006 pointing up problems with the proposed tether design. When Coluci et al proposed the existence of super-nanotubes in August 2006 Signor Pugno turned the problem into an opportunity publishing an evaluation of the strength, toughness and stiffness of super-nanotubes in October 2006 predicting "huge toughening mechanisms [that suggest] the feasibility of 'super-composites'" comparable to nacre (AKA mother-of-pearl).
  
  

  

  Building on these previous works Tsinghua University scientists Min Wang, Xinming Qiu, and Xiong Zhang released a paper (abstracted here on the Institute of Physics site) on their study modeling the Mechanical Properties of Super Honeycomb Structures Based on Carbon Nanotubes. Their report shows a super honeycomb network configuration of hexagonal patterns made from periodically repeating carbon nanotube Y junctions "increases the ductility of the nanomaterials" so that they not only keep the "renowned strength and elasticity" of straight nanotubes but have "great flexibility and outstanding capability" to transfer force to other parts of the structure when broken.
  
  Their paper concludes, in part, that "the network structures are expected to provide useful applications not only in nanoelectronics but also in fiber-reinforced composites."
  
  In December, 2006, Signor Pugno told the Space Elevator Journal by email that he was "developing a theory to design a flaw-tolerant megacable."

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[Space Elevator Journal]

Space Elevator Journal Update

• Second Biennial Space Elevator Workshop

  Posted: 24 Jan 2007 01:10 PM CST

  
  

  
  The second Biennial Space Elevator Workshop takes place at Space Exploration 2007 (SEC 2007) - a four day conference on the theme of “Humankind in Space: Competition or Collaboration.”
  
  According to conference organizers, The Space Engineering and Science Institute, SEC 2007, held Sunday, March 25 to Wednesday, 28 March 2007 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, "will draw together an international array of scientists, engineers, educators, managers and entrepreneurs and students."
  

  
  

  
  The conference offers keynote talks, planning sessions and panel discussions on a broad array of topics;
  

  • planetary exploration,
  • bases,
  • habitation,
  • space station,
  • engineering and construction in space and on the Moon and Mars,
  • space access,
  • space transportation,
  • space elevator technologies and advanced concepts,
  • entrepreneurial ventures in/for space,
  • space power,
  • space resource development,
  • NEO’s,
  • space commerce, law, education

  
  There will also be a Student Robotics Competition in the form of a space elevator (SE) climber challenge the goal of which is to design and build a climber able to climb a 30-foot ribbon with ground-based beamed power carrying a detachable payload representing SE cargo or, in the case of a moon-based SE, the command module components of a lunar base.
  
  SEC 2007 is looking for multi-disciplinary student teams from high schools, two- and four-year colleges to participate and there are four already signed up;
  

  • Intelligent Distributed Multi-Agent Robotics Systems Lab at the University of New Mexico
  • Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN (headed by the SEC 2007 Robotics Chair Ahad Nasab)
  • Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Akron (Ohio)
  • Department of Advanced Technical Education (ATE), Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

  Conference rates at the Albuquerque Marriott Pyramid North are available until February 14 by calling the hotel directly at (505) 821-3333 (Toll-free: 1-800-262-20430) or via the Marriot's online reservation system. Mention SEC 2007 or use Group Code 'spespea'.

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[Space Elevator Journal]

Space Elevator Journal Update

• Space Elevator Journal Turns Two (Months)

  Posted: 25 Jan 2007 04:30 PM CST

  I wanted to thank the 252 visitors that generated 418 page views here on the Space Elevator Journal since November 28, 2006. It may not seem like much to some but it's better than I thought I'd do from a standing start especially considering the two weeks around the holidays when things went dead.
  
  Call for Volunteers
  
  The Space Elevator Search Engine (SESE) isn't doing as well and I'm note sure why. There have only been 9 queries on it in the past month despite the premium top-right placement
  
  It's a Google Custom Search Engine that searches only the sites I index using Google Marker. As I'm surfing around researching articles for the SEJ I use marker to include sites with content relevant to the space elevator in the SESE. In time, I hope to have a comprehensive index of SE-related web content.
  
  That's where volunteers come in. It's an impossible task keeping up with it and I could use some help. If anyone wants to volunteer to collaborate on it just click the collaboration link on the SESE home page.
  
  Take the SESE for a spin by plugging a search term into the box above.
  
  --PB--

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