November 6, 2009
LaserMotive Qualified for $900T in Space Elevator Games
On November 4, 2009, the whole world have again witnessed the legendary space elevator games sponsored by Spaceward Foundation in partnership with NASA's Centennial Challenges program and Trumpf. Several teams competed for the grand prize of $2 Million for climbing up at the speed criteria of 11 miles per second, a ground laser beamed powered elevator stabilized by a helicopter with a height of 1 kilometer.
Kansas Space Pirates, USST and Lasermotive were among the best players for three years in a row. Kansas Space Pirates started out fast but got stucked in the way. USST always had the pride of being the best robot design, but has always been 10 seconds slower to win the prize. And LaserMotive, who joined the competition in 2007, managed to qualify for the criteria and went home with $900,000. LaserMotive's photovoltaic-powered machine became the first in the 3-year history of NASA's space elev ator contest to climb a 2,953-foot-long tether.
The concept of Space Elevator was based on the idea in 1895, "Tsiolkovsky" which means free standing structure from the surface of Earth to geostationary orbit in space. Space Elevator is the project proposed by NASA to establish a strong and light fixed structure instead of using rocket powered space launch.
Here is the video of the recent Space Elevator Games.
Click here to read the full story.
Click here to learn more about Space Elevator project.
Click here to watch the Official Trailer of the Space Elevator Games 2009.Written by: John
Filed Under: Robotics
Tags: Beam Robots, Centennial, Geostationary Orbit, Grand Prize, Helicopter, Kansas Space, Laser Beam, Nasa, Nasa Space, Partnership, Photovoltaic, Pride, Robot Design, Rocket Launch, Space Elevator Games, Space Games, Space Launch, Space Pirates, Space Space, Surface Of Earth, Tsiolkovsky, Usst
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