History of J E D Cline's efforts on the KESTS and related concepts.
Overview
- Bridgebuilder of necessity in Topanga Canyon, 1971 pic
- One of many who "re-invented" the earth tether concept, 1970,
but realized no material srong enough, gave up on earth space
elevator tether concept pending new materials development by others
in distant future
- Settled for creating the concept of a constant crossection fiberglass
lunar tether through L1, 1971-72, (The Mooncable: A Profitable Space Transportation System ...[ref
Mooncable: Gravitational-Electric Siphon In Space]), eventually submitted informal proposal to NASA in 1972, but
NASA had no money for it (resulted in wife leaving me).
- Learned of concepts of Hyde, Loftstrom, Smith and others, early-mid
1980's
- Testified before the National Commission on Space, November 1985 in support of Hyde's, Loftstrom's and other unusual advanced
kinds of transportation concepts concepts, but final report ignored
them
- "Centristation" concept for building a 200-1,000 person R&D toroid space habitat
in upper LEO
- Finally got on a public computer net, with the help of NSS: GEnie
Spaceport Library, 1988
- Seeking to solve problems with Hyde's and Lofstrom's and Smiths's concepts, synthesized initial general
kinetic energy supported transportation concept, 19880924, POWER + TRANSPORTATION.
- JEDC's GEnie Spaceport Library files put online 1988-
- Testimony to NCS
- Centristation (a mile-diameter wheel-like space habitat robotically
assembled in upper LEO by docking prefabricated segments into
a ring configuration, modules designed for dual function of their
own fuel tank during launch by combo of flybgack engine cluster
winged module plus airbreathing strap-on flyback booster ; this
conceptual design eventually became became published by SSI as
"Wet Launch of Prefab Habitat Modules", in 1995) g1071, g1537, g1718, g2391
- Mooncable (Fiberglass Lunar Tether through L1, integrated wiith
motor-generator tractors and solar powered zero-g manufacturing
at L1, before foamed-steel cast liftuing glider entry vehicle
delivery to earth surface, informal proposal submittted to NASA in 1972.) g480, g485, g1179, g1171
- Kinetic Energy Supported Transportaton Structures, large number
of files uploaded to GEnie library, (conceptual design eventually
published in ASCE's Space 2000 and Space 2002 Robotics 2002.) and is main theme of this website.g553, g563, g578, g581, g592 , g634, g644, g690, g747, g1974, g2167, g2425, g2466, g4969, g5711
- Realizing tha a major source of interference with these needed
projects was that they were perceived by aerospace industry as
if they were rival technologies, so proposed ways to accomodate
them. g6975.
Presented at local (Los Angeles Chapter) meeting of the SSI Space
Studies Team, talk "LONG SPACE TRANSPORTATION STRUCTURES AND APPLICATIONS" by J. E. D. Cline on 19890717, included the Mooncable lunar
tether through L-1 concept, KESTS to GEO concept, and 2-body cycling
skyhook basic concepts.
Submitted concepts of Centristation, and KESTS, to RAND project.
Presented KESTS concept to the L. A. Chapter of ISSS on November
9, 1994: A POTENTIAL APPLICATION OF GENERAL SYSTEMS THEORY: KESTS: A UNIQUE
TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY CONCEPT & IMPLICATIONS, by J. E. D. "Dave" Cline
Presented Centristation concept ("Wet Launch Of Prefab Habitat Modules"), in preparation for KESTS to GEO, to Space Studies Institute,
published in SSI's May 1995 conference proceedings, 1995
Presented KINETIC ENERGY SUPPORTED ELECTRICALLY POWERED TRANSPORTATION STRUCTURES paper to SSI conference at Princeton in May 1997, but SSI chose
not to publish, no technically adequate reason given (appearantly
stalled by George Friedman).
Attempted to interest new employer Orbital Sciences Corp, Sensors
Systems Div, in examining my KESTS and Centristation concepts,
but was continually ignored by management,1998-2001
Presented basic KESTS to GEO concepts at ASCE's SPACE 2000 conference,
andwas published in procedings of ASCE's "SPACE 2000" as "Kinetically Strengthened Transportation Structures"
Presented KESTS to GEO paper to Space 2002 conference, March 18,
2002 "Kinetically Supported Bridge Vehicle Lift To GEO", published in ASCE's "Space 2002 Robotics 2002" conference proceedings,
2002.