NASA sponsoring Space Elevator competition

[propforce]

An interesting article from the LA Times.<br /><br />Space Elevator Visions Going Up <br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Space Elevator Visions Going Up <br />The idea may sound like a sci-fi fantasy, but NASA is hosting a global competition and offering $150,000 to the winning team<br />Los Angeles Times 10/19/2006 <br />Author: John Johnson Jr.<br />Copyright 2006 The Los Angeles Times <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- On a windy expanse of the Chihuahuan Desert, the gangly 22-pound contraption began to climb up a thin carbon-fiber belt hung from a crane.<br /><br />Directed toward the craft from the ground was an array of 135 mirrors that concentrated the New Mexico light to an intensity equal to 300 suns. The beam shined on the climber's high-efficiency solar cells. With a muffled whirring, it rose 35 feet.<br /><br />Only 22,000 miles to go.<br /><br />The solar-powered elevator car, dubbed the Jolly Roger, is one of a dozen prototypes from around the world for a device that could lift humans and cargo into geostationary orbit aboard a futuristic space elevator.<br /><br />It's an admittedly bizarre idea, but NASA has taken it seriously enough to host a global competition here this week, offering $150,000 to the team that can lift the most weight to the top of a 200-foot tether in the shortest time.<br /><br />Instead of carrying heavy fuel, the machines must get their energy beamed onboard from sources such as sunlight, microwaves or lasers. That energy is then converted to electricity to drive the crafts' motors.<br /><br />NASA is also backing a related contest to find a material strong enough to support an elevator whose top floor is marked "S" for "space."<br />:<br />:<br />:<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[londo_mollari]

Very cool <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />. It seems NASA is taking the idea seriously othervise they wouldn't offer $150k for th competition.

 

[bdewoody]

They took the scram jet spaceplane a lot more seriously, dollar wise, but it doesn't mean it's buildable. Like do we have a working spaceplane yet? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em><font size="2">Bob DeWoody</font></em> </div>

 

[propforce]

You mean like this one?<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[rocketman5000]

Scramjet went black, better to bomb just about anyone on the planet.

 

[propforce]

Here's a follow-up story on the LA Times, but you'll need to register, so here's a copy & paste <br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p> No prizes for space elevators <br />Los Angeles Times 10/23/2006 <br />Author: John Johnson Jr.<br />Copyright 2006 The Los Angeles Times <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />NASA didn't have to write any checks at this year's X Prize Cup competition in Las Cruces, N.M., after judges decided Sunday not to honor any of the competitors in a $200,000 space elevator competition.<br /><br />Ben Shelef, an executive with the Spaceward Foundation that organized the competition, said the entry by the University of Saskatchewan climbed a 200-foot-high carbon fiber ribbon in just two seconds over the time allowed. Shelef said the judges agonized over the decision, but finally decided it would be unfair to make an award to a team for simply coming close.<br /><br />The Space Elevator Games was one of three events offering $2.4 million in NASA prize money at a two-day fair in New Mexico to spur innovation in space technology. Video game designer John Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace unmanned rocket ship failed to win the million-dollar prize to design a next-generation lunar lander after his craft crashed in the desert.<br /><br />Several teams also competed in another $200,000 challenge -- to make a tether strong enough to carry an elevator to space. None won that event, either.<br /><br />The idea of transporting astronauts and cargo to space in elevator-type carriers attached to tethers thousands of miles long and anchored to satellites in space is considered too fanciful to be practical anytime soon. But NASA has included the elevator competition as part of its Centennial Challenge program to see whether backyard inventors can overcome any of the idea's seemingly insurmountable problems.<br /><br />The Space Elevator Games challenge was to climb a long tether using only beamed power.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[josh_simonson]

It didn't go black, DOD just got interested and started doing research, at which point NASA decided not to duplicate their work and work on other things. Most of our LVs other than shuttle and EELV were derived from military hardware with the military paying 90% of the development costs. Seems like a good thing to let them run with the ball for a while.<br /><br /><br />Its sad that the IR and microwave groups were de-facto disqualified because the airport banned them at the last minute out of fear it would interfere with their radar. Next year they need a 200' wind-proof farraday cage it would seem.

 

[propforce]

Well... if it had indeed went "black", then we could neither confirm nor deny its existence, does it? <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[rocketman5000]

I am all for letting the DoD pay for things. In a months time we spend NASA's annual budget in darest I say the Iraq. Need I say they have a much easier time getting money than NASA