Space Elevator Challenge

MattSparkes writes "For the second year in a row, no team has won the $200,000 prize in the Space Elevator Challenge at the Wirefly X Prize Cup. Three teams were disqualified before the contest even started. Another competition at the event has been held up by confusion. Incredibly, it seems the organisers of the competition are not sure whether the ribbon used was 50 or 60 metres long, and whether any team completed the climb fast enough to win."

Comments

X-Prize Foundation

[Raynor]

is already responsible for a major advancement: the first private space ship able to relaunch in two weeks (SpaceShipOne).

The prize is definately motivation, and the X-Prize foundation has a few contests going:
-The Ansari X-Prize (Get 3 people to 100km twice in two weeks) - WON
-The Archon X-Prize (Sequence 100 people in 10 days with $10,000 cost per person) - OPEN
-The Automotive X-Prize (Currently being developed. Create super-efficent cars or alternative energy) - FUTURE

Those are the three the X-Prize Foundation has created. An interesting fact from the X-Prize website: "Ten times the amount of the prize purse was spent by the competitors trying to win the prize."