Space Elevator Journal

Editor: Dan Krause

The Space Elevator Journal is an annual publication that conforms with academic standards. Published papers should be rigorous, and are reviewed (at a minimum) by our technical committee.

The journal should serve as a counter-weight to sensationalist articles that appear in various pop-sci publications and cause much harm to the public image of the Space Elevator.

Topics covered by the journal are:

• Tether system, dynamics, steady-state and transients (e.g. deployment, breakage), maintenance, micro-structure and macro-architecture
• Power system (laser, solar, other)
• Vehicle engineering (e.g. manned environments)
• Operations (base logistics, launch, end-of-life)
• System engineering (The interaction of the above)
• Risk managements (weather, orbital debris)
• Related fields (e.g high-speed tether inspection techniques)
• Applications (The love-hate relationship with Space Solar power)
• Other

This year's call for papers coincides with the Yuri Artsutanov prize! See details below.

Research Paper Competition

Project Lead - Pete Swan

UPDATED: Abstract submission deadline extended through May 31st

The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) is very pleased to announce the competition details for the 2010 Pearson and Artsutanov prizes. ISEC has created these prizes to foster research about topics related to building a Space Elevator.

The prizes:

Jerome Pearson Award:

The Pearson Prize is open to all college undergraduate students currently enrolled in a two or four year undergraduate curriculum. Papers submitted for the Pearson prize must have a specific theme as its topic. For 2010, this theme is "Space Debris Mitigation".

Yuri Artsutanov Award:

The Artsutanov prize is open to all² entrants and papers can be on any space-elevator related subject.

The winner of the Pearson Prize will win a cash award¹ of $1,500 while the winner of the Artsutanov Prize will win a cash award¹ of $2,500. In addition, the winners (one per paper in case of multiple authors of a single paper) will be invited to the 2010 Space Elevator Conference to present their papers and to receive their award. ISEC will reimburse the winner's travel and hotel expenses (subject to conditions, specified below) to the conference. If the winner(s) do not wish to attend the conference or cannot attend the conference, they will be invited to present their paper via remote audio/visual connection.

Paper submission details:

• Deadline for abstract submissions - 31 May, 2010. A one-paragraph abstract, of no more than 400 words, must be submitted by this date. It should be a summary and complete in itself (no numerical references). The abstract should indicate the subject dealt with in the full text and should state the objectives of the paper. Newly-observed facts and conclusions resulting from the paper that are discussed in the full text must be stated in the summary form. Readers should not have to read the full text to understand the abstract. This abstract must be approved before the paper is submitted - this ensures that the final submission will be "on topic" and eligible for the prize. The "yes or no" decision about the abstract will be made and conveyed to the author(s) no later than 5 working days after the abstract is received.
• Deadline for final paper submissions - 1 July, 2010.
• Winners will be notified no later than 15 July, 2010.
• Submissions must be in either Word or Open Doc format.
• Submissions must be made in English.
• Papers should be between five and ten pages in length.
• Formatting and style of both the Abstract and Final Paper submissions should be as specified in the document: "Pearson and Artsutanov Prize - Style Guide for Manuscripts".  [PDF],  [DOC].
• Submissions must be emailed to either or .
• Papers must be new material; they cannot have been previously published.
• Copyrights: By submitting one or more papers to this competition, the author(s) expressly give permission to the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) to publish the abstract and the paper on the ISEC website and/or Space Elevator Wiki and to include it, at ISEC's discretion, in the ISEC Journal and ISEC e-Newsletter.
• Papers will be evaluated by a judging panel whose decision are final. We are looking for exceptional papers that advance our understanding of the Space Elevator. It is possible that the panel will choose to not award a prize if it feels that none of the papers reached this threshold. It is also possible for the panel to split the prize between several papers.

Travel expense reimbursement conditions

• To be eligible for reimbursement, lodging and travel expenses must be approved in writing and in advance.
• It is expected that travel expenses will be reimbursed for round-trip, economy class airfare.
• In addition, hotel expenses (room and hotel taxes only) will also be reimbursed but the hotel rate must also be approved in advance.
• Approval (in writing) must be by either the ISEC Competition Coordinator or the ISEC President.

Very Little Legalese

1. Award will be in US Dollars and will consist of a check, drawn on the ISEC account, for the prize amount.
2. Directors and officers of ISEC and their immediate family members are not eligible.