Space Elevator Teams Compete for NASA Prizes

Hugh Pickens writes "The University of Saskatchewan's has the first place climb in the Second Annual Space Elevator Games being held this weekend at the Davis County Event Center in Salt Lake City. Teams are competing for $1,000,000 in NASA prize money. Although the idea of a space elevator has been around for decades, the space technologies needed to support it have yet to be created. The non-profit Spaceward Foundation has hosted an annual competition since 2005 to build a super-strong tether, or get a robot to climb a suspended ribbon. In the robot climber competition, teams have to get their device to hurtle up a 100-metre-long ribbon, suspended from a crane, at an average speed of two metres per second. The climber must be powered from the ground: strategies include reflecting sunlight from huge mirrors on the ground to solar panels on the climber; shining lasers from the ground up to similar panels on the robot; or firing microwaves up at the climber. Qualifying rounds have been taking place all week, and although high winds and rain have caused delays, four out of eight teams have made it into the finals. There are no outdoor climbs today because of bad weather but some of the tether competitions will happen indoors later this afternoon."

Comments

elevator music for 4 months straight

[Anonymous Coward]

In the robot climber competition, teams have to get their device to hurtle up a 100-metre-long ribbon, suspended from a crane, at an average speed of two metres per second.

they've got a long way to go, at 2 meters per second it would take a little over 4 months to get to geosynchronous orbit. imagine the effects of elevator music on the human mind after 4 months of listening to it.

Re:Why can't they be self powered?

[vertinox]

Why do the elevators have to have "beamed power" to them, when they could be self powered like every other "going into space" craft? Why this unusual criteria? To save weight?

Because if the craft could carry its own power supply it might as well be a rocket. The energy required to get into orbit includes its weight in fuel which means you've got to get more thrust which means more fuel which means more requirement in thrust. There is a break even point (obviously), but if you could just haul the cargo up without the extra weight of fuel then you've saved yourself a bit more energy used for the lift which results in an exponentially smaller amount of total energy required.

I suppose they could use complete solar energy rather than "beamed power", but if someone was truly going to get a cost efficient space elevator it would still days a long time to get to cargo into orbit which might last a few days which means you'll have to go through a few days and nights. Of course you could put battery packs on the space elevator for night travel, but again your adding extra weight.