Los Alamos - Sep 10, 2003
Sir Arthur C. Clarke, world-renowned science fiction author, will address the Second Annual Space Elevator Conference held Sept. 12-15 in Santa Fe. The event is co-sponsored by Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Institute for Scientific Research Inc. (ISR).
Clarke, the author of "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Fountains of Paradise" and many other novels, will open the conference with a live address via satellite at 8 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 13, from his home in Sri Lanka.
Clarke has included space elevator imagery in several of his novels and has long been a champion of this revolutionary means of space travel. The conference will bring together individuals and institutions interested in solving the scientific and engineering challenges inherent in constructing the world's first space elevator.
Said conference organizer Bryan E. Laubscher of the Los Alamos Space Instrumentation and System Engineering Group, "With the discovery of carbon nanotubes and their remarkable strength properties, the time for the space elevator is at hand."
"The promise of inexpensive access to space is so important to the human race that we are ready to meet these challenges head on. Viewed in one way, the space elevator will be the largest civil engineering project ever attempted," Laubscher said.
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