FYI,

"Success in 'Space Elevator' Competition"
Associated Press
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091105/ap_on_sc/us_space_elevator

: A robot powered by a ground-based laser beam climbed a long cable
: dangling from a helicopter on Wednesday to qualify for prize money
: in a $2 million competition to test the potential reality of the
: science fiction concept of space elevators.

: The highly technical contest brought teams from Missouri, Alaska
: and Seattle to Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert, most familiar
: to the public as a space shuttle landing site.

: The contest requires their machines to climb 2,953 feet (nearly
: 1 kilometer) up a cable slung beneath a helicopter hovering nearly
: a mile high.

: LaserMotive's vehicle zipped up to the top in just over four
: minutes and immediately repeated the feat, qualifying for at least
: a $900,000 second-place prize.

: The device, a square of photo voltaic panels about 2 feet by 2 feet
: and topped by a motor structure and thin triangle frame, had failed
: to respond to the laser three times before it was lowered,
: inspected and then hoisted back up by the helicopter for the
: successful tries.

: LaserMotive's two principals, Jordin Kare and Thomas Nugent, said
: they were relieved after two years of work. They said their real
: goal is to develop a business based on the idea of beaming power,
: not the futuristic idea of accessing space via an elevator climbing
: a cable.

: "We both are pretty skeptical of its near-term prospects," Kare
: said of an elevator.

: The contest, however, demonstrates that beaming power works, Nugent
: said.

: "Anybody who needs power in one place and can't run wires to it
: — we'd be able to deliver power," Kare said.

: Earlier out on the lakebed, team member Nick Burrows had pointed
: out how it grips the cable with modified skateboard wheels and the
: laser is aimed with an X Box game controller.

: It had never climbed higher than 80 feet previously, he said.

: The day's competition began late after hours of testing the cable
: system, refueling the helicopter and waits for specific time
: windows in which the lasers can be fired without harming satellites
: passing overhead.

: The Kansas City Space Pirates went first with a machine that
: initially balked but eventually began climbing. Its speed was too
: slow to qualify for any prizes but it got within about 160 feet of
: the top before the laser had to be shut down for satellite
: protection.

: Ben Shelef, CEO of the contest-sponsoring Spaceward Foundation,
: said the Pirates had a minor laser tracking problem but the real
: problem appeared to be in the mechanical system.

: As the afternoon grew late, the University of Saskatchewan's Space
: Design Team had to put off its attempts until Thursday. All three
: teams had further chances to qualify through Friday.

: The competition was five years in the making, Shelef said.

: "A lot of hurdles to cross," he said. "Now that it's happening I'm
: actually happy already. It doesn't matter what the outcome is."

: Funded by a NASA program to explore bold technology, the contest is
: intended to encourage development of a theory that originated in
: the 1960s and was popularized by Arthur C. Clarke's 1979 novel "The
: Fountains of Paradise."

: Space elevators are envisioned as a way to reach space without the
: risk and expense of rockets.

: Instead, electrically powered vehicles would run up and down a
: cable anchored to a ground structure and extending thousands of
: miles up to a mass in geosynchronous orbit — the kind of orbit
: communications satellites are placed in to stay over a fixed spot
: on the Earth.

: Electricity would be supplied through a concept known as "power
: beaming," ground-based lasers pointing up to photo voltaic cells on
: the bottom of the climbing vehicle — something like an upside-down
: solar power system.

: The space elevator competition has not produced a winner in its
: previous three years, but has become increasingly difficult.

: The vehicles must climb at an average speed of 16.4 feet (5 meters)
: per second, or about 11 miles (18 kilometers) per hour, to qualify
: for the top prize. A lesser prize is available for vehicles that
: climb at 2 meters per second.

: The rules allow one team to collect all $2 million or for sums to
: be shared among all three teams depending on their achievements.

: While the concept of an elevator to space may seem too fanciful,
: Andrew Williams, 26, a mechanical engineer on the Saskatchewan
: team, said he has no doubts it will come about.

: "Once we put our minds to something it's just a matter of time for
: us to achieve it," he said.

Mark Reiff