Friday, April 12, 2013

LiftPort - Michael Laine

LiftPort - Michael Laine

LifePort 2.0 - the Space Elevator company that would not die.

The original idea is to tie a string from a satellite to the earth.  Then can go up and down the string.  Michael funded a lot of the work out of his own pocket.  He had some money from real estate.  When the market tanked he was no longer able to fund the work.

They are now looking starting with a lunar space elevator.  They want to build string that is 250,000 km long the width of dental floss.  This could allow cheaper access to lunar materials.

They are using kickstarter for funding.  They asked for $8,000 to build a string up to a balloon.  They raised $110,000.  They got about $20,000 to play with.  There was a lot of media attention and some backers.  And lots of volunteers.

A lot of doors have opened.  Rick has been to several countries.  They are looking at doing some experiments this summer, up to 23,000 feet.


The full agenda for Space Access 2013 agenda.


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