Daily Archives: October 22, 2006

Space Elevator Games – no winner this year

Over at the Space Elevator Reference, they are reporting that USST did not win the climber prize this year, so I guess the problems they had on the descent were enough to disqualify them (when I have or find a more complete explanation of exactly what the problem was, I’ll either report it or point readers to it).  Nevertheless, their climb was quite impressive.

Even more impressive is that they used their second choice of power supply to power their Climber.  They had originally planned to launch via laser power, but couldn’t get their laser to work properly at the Games, so they used spot lights instead.  Even that was enough to drive them up to the top of the tether in prize-winning time.  I’m sure they’ll be putting in more effort into having a ready laser for next year.  And, as it’s envisioned that a “real” space elevator will be laser-powered, this can’t but help move the effort along.

A side note on the USST effort; as I noted on an earlier posting, they made a deal with the Spanish Team, Recens (and perhaps TurboCrawler – I’m trying to verify that) to use their spotlights to power their climb.  Recens, as readers know, were the victim of a major UPS snafu – UPS lost their climber, which they had shipped from Spain, somewhere in Kentucky. 

Recens had promised to donate their climber to a local Spanish museum when the games were over, but as the climber was lost, they were in danger of being unable to fulfill that promise.  It was announced during the Games that USST sold their climber to Recens (rumoured to be for the princely sum of 1 (one) US Dollar) and that Recens was going to take that climber back to Spain to donate to the museum.  So, all-in-all, a good deal for everyone involved.

Day 2 (Part 12)

The Tether Challenge ended just about a half-hour ago and NASA’s Prize money for the Tether Challenge is safe for another year.

Four teams entered the competition; Astroaraneae, UBC, Centaurus Aerospace and Bryan Laubscher.  Lots were drawn to determine who would face who in the two semi-final qualifying matches.  Centaurus Aerospace drew Astroaraneae and UBC drew Bryan Laubscher.

Tethers from Centaurus Aerospace and Astroaraneae were both weighed and both came in under the 2 gram limit.  They were each then mounted on the Tether Pull machine and measured for length.  While Astroaraneae met the 2 meter minimum, Centaurus Aerospace did not and was disqualified.

Tethers from UBC and Bryan Laubscher were then both weighed and they, too, both came in under the 2 gram limit.  They were each then mounted on the Tether Pull machine and measured for length.  Unfortunately, neither team met the 2 meter minimum and were both, therefore, disqualified.  So, Team Astroaraneae won the competition by default.

There was much discussion and unhappiness over the disqualifications, and that topic deserves a separate post.

in the spirit of competition, however, tethers from UBC and Bryan Laubscher were matched against each other in a “non-title” match.  Team UBC won when Bryan’s tether parted at 531 pounds.  UBC then matched it’s tether against one from Centaurus Aerospace in another friendly competition.  Centaurus won when the UBC tether parted at about 880 pounds.

Astroaraneae then faced off against the house tether.  The house tether won, but the Astroaraneae tether didn’t part until 1335.9 pounds of pressure was applied – a very impressive performance.  This beat last year’s winner by about 100 pounds.

An attempt was then made to break the house tether.  It was matched against a high-quality rope, not as competition, but just to see at what level the house tether parted at.  This number would then be a factor in next year’s competition.  Unfortunately, the house tether proved to be stronger than the machine!  The aluminum rollers holding the tethers actually began to force the block holding them outward at one end and the measurement had to be halted.  They’re going to have to come up with an alternative method to measure these.

So, congratulations go out to Michael Remington and his Team Astroaraneae!  Michael and his team promise to be back next year with an even stronger composition.

Below are some pictures of the Tether Challenge.  As always, click on the thumbnails to view a larger version of the picture.

Ben Shelef explaining the rules before competition began.

 

 

 

 

 

Ben hooking up the signal lights.  These lights were “on” for each tether during the pull.  When a tether broke, it’s light would go out – the other light signifying the winner.

 

 

The “Tether Torture Machine” after being beaten by the House Tether.  Note the block holding the left side of the roller – it’s being forced outward.  Not good !

 

 

Michael Remington of Team Astroaraneae.  Congratulations again !!