Welcome to InSpace

Credit: LiftPort Group

It is not science fiction. It’s a way to colonize space using today’s technologies and materials.

That’s the view of advocates for planting a space elevator on the Moon. The concept would consist of a ribbon made of very strong and very light material — carbon nanotubes being a material of choice – stretching out from the lunar surface into space.

Once in place, elevator cars serve as robotic lifters to haul cargo. Such a lunar elevator could provide cheap and reliable access to the Moon.

In order to fine tune the plan, the LiftPort Group of Bremerton, Washington is holding a workshop dedicated to realizing the Lunar Elevator in the next 10 years. The event is being held July 31 – August 1 at the Future of Flight museum in Everett, Washington.

The LiftPort Group goal is to create a scalable, mass space transportation system, open up the vast market opportunities that exist in space, many of which haven’t even been imagined yet.

For information on the Lunar Elevator workshop, go to:

http://www.spaceelevatorevents.com/index.html

By Leonard David

Asteroid Lutetia has been revealed as a battered world of many craters. ESA's Rosetta mission has returned the first close-up images of the asteroid showing it is most probably a primitive survivor from the violent birth of the Solar System.