Space elevator conference reviews + Japanese tether climber competition

In its latest newsletter, the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) reviews their recent conference and sets the theme of next year’s event : ISEC Newsletter August 2014.

Here is another overview of the conference: 2014 ISEC Space Elevator Conference Wrapup – The Space Elevator Blog

The Japan Space Elevator Association (JSEA) attended the conference and reported on a recent tether climber contest that they sponsored: SPEC 2014 – The Space Elevator Blog

 This year for instance, they had a 1,200 m long tether held up by balloons.  Climbers are powered by batteries and scores are awarded based on speed, payload, etc.

The participants have been all Japanese so far but the JSEA wants to bring in other teams to make it an international competition.