Take a laser-powered elevator to space
Source: Agencies |
November 6, 2009, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
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 US$2 million competition to test the science fiction concept of space elevators.
The contest brought teams from Missouri, Alaska and Seattle to Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert in California, widely known as a space shuttle landing site.
The contest requires their machines to climb nearly 1 kilometer up a cable slung beneath a helicopter.
LaserMotive??s vehicle zipped up to the top in just over four minutes and immediately repeated the feat, qualifying for at least a US$900,000 second-place prize.
The device, a square of photo voltaic panels about 0.6 meters by 0.6 meters and topped by a motor structure and thin triangle frame, had failed to respond to the laser three times before success.
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.
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 kilometers 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.
The vehicles must climb at an average speed of about 18 kilometers per hour, to qualify for the top prize. The rules allow one team to collect all US$2 million or for sums to be shared among all three teams depending on their achievements.
The contest brought teams from Missouri, Alaska and Seattle to Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert in California, widely known as a space shuttle landing site.
The contest requires their machines to climb nearly 1 kilometer up a cable slung beneath a helicopter.
LaserMotive??s vehicle zipped up to the top in just over four minutes and immediately repeated the feat, qualifying for at least a US$900,000 second-place prize.
The device, a square of photo voltaic panels about 0.6 meters by 0.6 meters and topped by a motor structure and thin triangle frame, had failed to respond to the laser three times before success.
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.
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 kilometers 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.
The vehicles must climb at an average speed of about 18 kilometers per hour, to qualify for the top prize. The rules allow one team to collect all US$2 million or for sums to be shared among all three teams depending on their achievements.
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