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LaserMotive Finds Success In Space Elevator Competition
Bucc5062 writes "LaserMotive has achieved the first step towards the creation of a working space elevator by qualifying for the $900,000 prize in a contest sponsored by NASA. To achieve this first level, LaserMotive needed to propel a platform up a cable dangling from a helicopter at over 2 m/s. They hit a top speed of 4.13 m/s. The next level of qualification will be to achieve a climb speed greater then 5 m/s. LaserMotive beamed roughly 400 watts of laser power to a moving target at a distance of 1 kilometer, as part of the vertical laser alignment procedure. The target was a retro-reflective board a little larger than 1 meter on a side. The contest will continue for another two days with at least two other teams challenging for the prize. To win the Power Beaming competition, the LaserMotive system uses a high-power laser array to shine ultra-intense infrared light onto high-efficiency solar cells, converting the light into electric power which then drives a motor. 'Our system will track the vehicle as it climbs, compensating for motion due to wind and other changes. Building on our experience from last year’s competition, we are designing an improved system able to capture the full $2,000,000 prize.'"
Leik Myrabo at RPI has been working on this stuff for years. In his words, if we can hit an enemy ICBM travelling at many times the speed of sound with a laser, surely we can keep one focused on a friendly target with a known/desired trajectory. These projects will NOT become accidental Death Stars. Given the absurdly high percentage that fuel makes up of a vehicles launch weight, anything you can do to power the craft externally gives you huge savings.
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What if someone farts in the space elevator? You'll be stuck for way more than a few floors.
Congratulations to LaserMotive and I hope that they (or one of the other participants) quickly claim the remaining prizes.
Still, it occurred to me that the real system (capable of climbing to Geo-sync and beyond) won't be designed in a vacuum (ha ha). I mean, the cable on which these climbers ascend will be exquisitely engineered as well, probably down to the nano-level if it's going to work at all. So shouldn't the contest be that of a cable/climber combination? I mean like what if the cable or climber or both was using some nano patterned material like the underside of a gecko's foot (which lets them cling upside down to ceilings). Or maybe if there was some sort of nano (or not, I saw one made out of large metal bits) "velcro" like material in which case there would have to be hooks on one surface and clasps on another.
As long as the surface of the cable didn't add appreciably to the weight of the (supposed) carbon nanotube structure, it could add tremendously to the gripping power of the climber while still allowing for a practical cable.
The problem is, I'm sure, soluble, but the technical difficulty should not be underestimated.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
(A C Clarke had a story in which large numbers of flat mirrors were used to vaporise a football referee. Obviously, everybody holding a mirror had to steer it. In reality, the target would have been so bright they would probably not have been able to aim effectively.)
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Nobody is able to design the cable. We simply don't have the technology, which is why they're focusing on the climber instead.
This is a bit like having a contest to design a cool hat to be worn while using an anti-gravity belt. If someone wins the contest, then we are one step closer to being able to float while wearing a cool hat - all that's left is the bit with the belt.
it's the difference between catching a lofted cricket ball or baseball, and catching a fly."
to complete your allegory in terms of childhood classic movies, the solution to the problem is less bad news bears and more karate kid
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Now we've just got to get the helicopter to drop the rope from space, and we're set.
Mod parent up- right on. The cable needs to be made of "baloneyium" (as someone famously opined about the composition of Niven's Ringworld). Its composition and engineering are way beyond our current capabilities - not so far that it's not worth pursuing, mind you, but this contest does seem to put the proverbial laser-powered cart before the carbon-nanotube horse.
..we had some great engineers to rush this projects. :)
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Surgeon General's Warning:
Don't look down with remaining eye.
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
making the issue of getting out of our atmosphere a relatively dull process
...until someone creates space elevator music. Then it will become a dull, agonizing process.
Your brain is not a computer.
Mod parent up: One of the arguments of the Augustine group against a return-to-Moon-first strategy is that we would have to first climb out of the Earth's gravity well, only to go into the Moon gravity well, and then have to climb out of that. If the space elevator would work on the moon (without unobtainium cabling), then it solves a large part of the moon gravity well problem.
In addition, a moon space elevator will not have a number of the serious problems that an earth space elevator would have, in particular flying space junk (though there is some around the moon at this point), hurricane force winds, and terrorists. Don't think for a minute that a space elevator is not a juicy target for some pissed off group that knows how to fly planes.
The more people I meet, the better I like my dog.