Monthly Archives: October 2007

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 34)

I was waiting to record one of the qualification runs and who did I see?  Michael Laine of Liftport.  I went over to say hello – he’s looking hale and healthy.

Markus Klettner of EuroSpaceward joined our conversation – and tried to talk me into coming to the European Space Elevator Games next year.  I’d sure love to – I hope I can talk my wife into it. 🙂

Michael told me that he has a couple of announcements to make – more than that he doth not say…

(Click on the thumbnail for a larger version of the picture)

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 33)

A brief update for today – videos to follow:

The weather has been partly sunny, cold, but almost no wind.  Ideal conditions for the Laser and Microwave teams, but none of them have been ready to go.

E-T-C, powered by spotlights, made numerous attempts to qualify.  Unfortunately they did not succeed.  I haven’t gone to them yet to ask them for a post-mortem, but I will later on.

Both the Technology Tycoons and UBC-Snowstar DID qualify today.  Neither team was able to run to the top of the ribbon, but cloud conditions prevented all but a fraction of the sunlight reaching their mirrors.  Because this was a “weather-related handicap”, they were adjudged to have qualified. (see correction below)

The KC Space Pirates also made another run.  They used more mirrors than they had in their qualification run and generally made this a practice pass.

We’re shut down now for a few hours while the 400′ crane is moved into place.  I don’t know if anyone is going to run on it or not, but we’ll see.  I think we’ll also have the 100′ crane operational too.

I also don’t know the status of the Microwave or Laser teams.  We’ll find out in the next couple of hours.  If they don’t succeed in qualifying today, I’m afraid they’ll be out of the competition.

More later…

Correction – stupid me.  UBC DID reach the top of the ribbon, succesfully engaged with the Stop plate and made a controlled descent.  I have it on tape (and am uploading it to YouTube.  Sorry, UBC team, sorry, sorry, sorry)…

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 32)

Here’s the story on yesterday’s “provisional” qualification runs.  Today is the last day that teams are allowed to qualify to run in the Prize Money competition.  If the weather on Thursday (today) had been as bad as it has earlier in the week, then yesterday’s runs were the qualification ones (and everyone “qualified”).  However, it’s looking today like the weather may give us a bit of a break.  It’s overcast (bad for the solar teams), but the wind has died down (good for all teams).

The 100′ crane is here and they’re beginning to hook up the equipment to it.  With any luck, we’ll be getting in some “real” qualification runs today.

In the meantime, here are the videos of the “contingency qualification runs”.  I’ll post them in the order they provisionally qualified…

First of all is UBC-Snowstar.  They made two runs.  I missed the first couple of seconds of the first run, but I have the rest of it plus all of the second one.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLFwrVnruG8[/youtube]

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Next was the Technology Tycoons.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhd7BFHPFCY[/youtube]

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They were followed by the McGill Space Elevator team.  I was particulary glad to see their climber perform well considering the very nasty accident it (and they) experienced on the way here.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDDcuq8s8NU[/youtube]

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Next ran E-T-C, the joint Japanese-American team.  You’ll note that they were the only ones who ran with their solar panels.  Teams had an option to do this or not for this provisional qualification run.  E-T-C was the only one who elected to do so.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYLD74bhlbg[/youtube]

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E-T-C was followed by USST.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTEafTEML6s[/youtube]

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LaserMotive was next up.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bycYYM1fl14[/youtube]

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Finally Centaurus made their run.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN_QLZk2LxI[/youtube]

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(18OCT07 – update.  Oops, I inadvertently posted the E-T-C video twice (once where the USST video went).  This has been fixed.  Thanks to the readers who pointed it out.)

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 31)

Both LaserMotive and Centaurus passed the “qualification” tests that were run today.  This means that all 8 teams which have showed up “qualified”.

I put “qualified” in quotes because now I’m not quite sure what that means.  It was my understanding that the teams which passed todays tests were considered qualified.  Now it’s my understanding that this is only provisional.  If the weather tomorrow does not permit additional qualification runs, then the tests today will be considered qualification ones.  However, if the weather tomorrow does permit runs to be made, then the teams have to go through the same qualification tests which the Kansas City Space Pirates successfully did on Monday.

At least that’s my understanding now.  I’m sure it will be clarified in tomorrow morning’s team meeting.

I am uploading the “qualification” videos now to YouTube.  They will take some time and then I will include them in the next post.

In the meantime, I’d like to salute the hard-work and inventiveness shown by the three people who were largely responsible for putting together the indoor “qualification” rig.  From left to right, they are Michael Fischer, Bryan Laubscher and Vern McGeorge.  Some people may recognize Michael as being one of the entrants into last year’s Games.  He tells me that he is also an honorary member of the E-T-C team.  Bryan is the safety officer and is also a major booster of the Space Elevator concept (and a partner with Dr. Brad Edwards in Black Line Ascension).  Vern is a long time Spaceward volunteer and is one of the crew who works in the background making things happen.

Thanks, guys.  Without your work today, these runs would have never happened.

(Click on the thumbnail for a larger version of the picture)

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 30)

A couple of videos that you might be interested in…

The first shows the hail and snow that we experienced a while ago.  As I write this, (about 9:15pm – Utah time), we’re having cold, rainy conditions.  But it is supposed to improve tomorrow – we should have one of the cranes here and get some good practice runs in.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBaPTm8d3-Q[/youtube]

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This second video is of Jeffrey, a 13 year-old member of the Kansas City Space Pirates showing off one of his unique talents.  He’s pretty good…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySWudv44gaA[/youtube]

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 28)

Finally some good news.  With the revised qualification setup, five additional teams were able to qualify today.  They include UBC-Snowstar, Technology Tycoons, McGill Space Elevator Team, E-T-C and USST.  Including the Kansas City Space Pirates, who qualified on Monday, there are now six teams eligible for the Prize money competition.

Both LaserMotive and Centaurus (who, I’m told, should be here “any time now”) will be attempting to qualify later this evening.

With luck, all eight teams that made it this far will be eligible for the Prize money competition – this would be the best outcome possible.

Congratulations to all the qualifiers !!!

I have videos of all of the qualification runs.  I will be posting those over the next few hours.

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 27)

The revised qualification setup is being installed in Building 3.  It’s proving to be more difficult than first expected (what new?), but is making progress.  Once it’s up, then it will be an “all-weather” setup.  So we can stay late and start early.

The thumbnail is a close-up of the top of the rig.  Click on it for a larger version.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzUPCHGGJA0[/youtube]

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 25)

Here’s a short video I took of the mountains just outside the venue.  Yes, folks, that’s snow up there, and it wasn’t there yesterday.  Some of the forecasts for the area say that we might get some too.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ5h9_Ymppk[/youtube]

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Here are thumbnails of some photos I just took of the various team areas.  As always, click on the thumbnails for larger versions of the pictures.

Technology Tycoons sitting around a table and either a) working on last minute details of their qualification run or b) doing their homework (not)…

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USST setting up in the official Climber Row building.  They, too, are probably working on details for their qualification run.

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The McGill Space Elevator Team, also getting ready for their qualification run.  You may note that they posted on a comment on my previous post about their equipment.  The gash in the antenna is actually deliberate – it allows the “horn” and the waveguide to be mounted through the antenna.  Sorry guys…

The Kansas City Space Pirates Climber, mounted inside a tent.  These guys look pretty relaxed – they’re already qualified…

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E-T-C, working on fortifying their climber.  After they saw what the wind did to the UBC climber and mirrors during their attempt yesterday, they decided that some additional bracing would be a good thing…

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The LaserMotive area work area.  They have the entire area surrounded with curtains as they are aligning their laser – and the surrounding area must be protected.  I have some video and photos of some the aligning and will be posting those later.

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The UBC mirrors – repaired and ready to go.

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2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 24)

Some additional broadcast capabilities are coming to these Games.  Marc Boucher, the co-founder of SpaceRef.com, CEO of the Mars Institute, and CEO of a new venture, Hyperix, is setting up a webcam for the event.  This will be focusing on the competition climbs when they are happening and, in between (and before and after) will be taking a snapshot every minute of various places at the venue.

This will all be accessible via the Internet.  When he’s got it up and running, I’ll post a link to it here.  It should be a very good way to get an up-to-the-minute snapshot of various activities.

Just a note about Marc.  He’s also the guy who handles the Space Elevator Reference.  I’ve conversed with him a bit via email and phone over the past year, but this is the first time I’ve had a chance to meet him.  He’s a great guy and I’m really happy that we’re working together to cover this.  He’s even more of a gadget-geek than I am.  He’s just shown me his iPod Touch – he told me he bought it so he could read his newspaper while sitting on his sofa 🙂

Incidently, Marc has some good stories and photos up about the Games so far at the Space Elevator Reference – check them out here.

I’ve posted before about the really interesting stuff I’ve found on his daily digest from SpaceRef.com.  If you haven’t subscribed to it, I highly recommend you do.  He’s also starting up a new service called “On Orbit” – kind of a digg for Space news.  You can read more about it at his site. 

 Nice to make your acquaintance Marc.

(The photo thumbnail is the webcam – click on it for a larger version of the picture)

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 23)

One other development of note.  In this morning’s all-hands meeting, Spaceward and NASA quizzed the teams, asking who could stay if the Games had to be extended a day or two because of the weather (I posted about this yesterday).  Now that the teams have had a day to digest this and check schedules, etc., it appears that almost no one can.

The Kansas City Space Pirates can stay, but they’ll be a bit short-handed.  E-T-C MIGHT be able to stay one day.  USST, McGill, Technology Tycoons, LaserMotive and UBC all either cannot stay or will be so short-handed that they won’t be able to run.  And Centaurus still hasn’t shown up, so no one knows the situation with them…

This could change of course, but that’s the situation at the moment.

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 22)

It’s the morning of the 17th.  The weather is truly crappy, awful, pissy, sucky, rotten, nasty, etc., etc., etc.  It looks like it’s lightening up a bit to the North-northwest, but nothing I would count on.

In order to try and get the qualifications in, the rules have been relaxed.  Spaceward personnel and volunteers are going to try to rig up a forklift unit to qualify on.  This forklift unit can extend to about 30′ feet high.  The trolley mechanism, normally hanging from the top of the crane, will now be hanging from the top of the forklift unit.

For qualification, it will now no longer be necessary to beam power the climber; batteries or AC power are acceptable.  Spaceward wants to verify that a team can mount the climber on a ribbon in a timely manner, have it ascend upwards to hit the cutoff switch on the trolley, descend properly, and then be dismounted from the ribbon in a timely manner.  There will also be no speed requirements because of the very short run.  If a team can do this, it will be deemed “Qualified”.  Of course for the real race, the original rules stay in effect; ascending about 100 meters at an average speed of 2 meters / second, carrying payload, etc.  These revised rules are for qualifying only.

All of the teams here which have not yet qualified (E-T-C, UBC-Snowstar, USST, LaserMotive, McGill and Technology Tycoons) have said that they are ready to qualify today under the modified rules.  Spaceward personnel / volunteers are now busy modifying the trolley and supporting mechanisms to be suspended from the forklift rather than the crane.  Assuming they can make this work, these revised qualifications will start at noon today.  Of course I will be there, recording all…

The video is one I took when I arrived this morning.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l27fb_6Z-Vc[/youtube]

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 21)

This post contains a couple of videos about the McGill Space Elevator team and their entries in this year’s Space Elevator Games.

Yes, entries, plural.  McGill is ready to compete with both a solar powered and microwave powered climber.

The following two videos, narrated by various McGill Space Elevator team members, describe their solar and rectenna arrays.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBDKajgDleo[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSvkzwV3He0[/youtube]

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 20)

The Kansas City Space Pirates have come up with “Commemorative payload weights” as both a way of increasing their chances to win (by adding to their Climber’s payload) and raising a little money.

These are etched mirrors which will be the ones actually used as payload weights.  If the KC Space Pirates win this competition, these should certainly be worth a few bucks.  In the video, Brian explains all…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhPEiQoJqy8[/youtube]

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 19)

Once again, weather is playing havoc with the Space Elevator Games.  The wind (and now rain) conditions today have limited qualification attempts to just one, the failed attempt by UBC-Snowstar.  Both E-T-C and the Technology Tycoons were also ready to attempt to qualify, but weather prevented it.

The forecast is now looking pretty gloomy for the Salt Lake City area for the next few days.  Because of that, there is now a contingency plan in place to extend the Games by up to two days (through Tuesday, October 23rd, IF NECESSARY.  A Team Captain meeting was just held to inform the teams of this possible change of plans.

Of course this will play havoc with travel schedules, school schedules (for our High School and University students), work schedules, etc.  The Davis County Fairgrounds has kindly made their facility available for the extra two days if necessary.

This sucks, but we really can’t control the weather.  Hopefully things will clear up, at least enough to qualify the Climbers for their runs before the weekend.

The Light Racers and the Tether Pull competitions, as they’re being held indoors, will still be held on Saturday, October 20th.

Again, these are contingency plans, hopefully not necessary.  But we want to be ready if weather does not cooperate.

(The picture is of the deserted competition “ring”.  As always, click on it for a larger version of the picture.)

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 18)

Here are some pictures of the McGill Space Elevator team’s (damaged) equipment.

This is their Microwave antenna.  You can see the gash at the top.

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Here is the rectenna, also slightly damaged.

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And here is their climber.  It, too, has problems, but they are working on fixing them.

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These guys are very busy getting things working so I’ve not bugged them about details of the accident.  But I will before the Games are out…

As always, click on the thumbnails for a larger version of the picture.

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 17)

The Technology Tycoons showed up today, the 7th team (of the 8 we are expecting) to arrive.  This is the team which, last year, was known as “Lite Won”.  They are from Campbell High School located in, oddly enough, Campbell, California.

Even though they were the “youngest” (in terms of chronological age of the team members) to compete last year, their performance was most impressive, being beaten out by only USST.  I expect no less from them this year.

Last year, their array was directly powered by the sun.  Their solar-cell array was facing upwards, using direct sun power (as opposed to the Kansas City Space Pirates which used redirected solar power).  NASA has decreed that this will not be allowed this year as it is not “beam technology” (NASA is interested in the beam technology advances these games will show, not a Space Elevator per se.  See my previous posting on this subject).

This year, they have just turned their solar cell array upside down.  They will be reflecting sunlight onto it with several (10, I think) hand-held, 4’x8′ mirrors.  When I asked them how they will be able to know that their mirrors are actually hitting the array, they told me that they will just “follow the ribbon” all the way up.  I think they’re being overly-optimistic, but we’ll see.  After their performance last year, I’m not counting them out at all.  I suggested to them that they get the KC Space Pirates permission to use their balloon to practice targeting the mirrors.

Here are two videos showing them assembling their climber.  Their solar array is of the “roll-up” variety, custom made for them by a company called Power Film (http://www.powerfilmsolar.com/) out of Aimes, Iowa.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Po6lf-DnJ8[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9aIB5Dv7Yc[/youtube]

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 16)

UBC-Snowstar attempted to qualify today, but wind problems prevented them from doing so.  The wind tore some of the solar cells off of the climber itself and also ripped off some of the reflective panels from their two massive mirrors.

The videos below show the wind conditions and the state of the UBC-Snowstar mirrors after their first attempt.

It’s no windier than it was in Las Cruces last year, so these conditions are not unexpected.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alp8KzWVhl4[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H0s4_oYPZU[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J17zQbNJ0xs[/youtube]

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 15)

This morning, we held our first all-hands meeting.  These will be held every morning at 8:00am.  In this meeting, Ben Shelef (Spaceward Foundation) and Ken Davidian (NASA) will go over any issues that have come up.  All teams are to attend and can bring up any issues they want.

In this meeting, the general schedule was discussed.  Yesterday, today and tomorrow are reserved for qualification runs, done on an ad-hoc basis (whoever is ready to go, goes).  On Thursday, we’ll try to run on a simulated competition schedule where climbs are run every hour on the hour.  Friday, Saturday and Sunday, of course, are the main competition days.  Climbs are scheduled to run each hour, on the hour.  Of course, that is weather dependent.

The video below is a snapshot of the meeting.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXhSWmCjuqg[/youtube]

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 14)

Another day of getting ready for the Space Elevator Games begins.  The video, below, was shot just after I entered the competition site early this morning. 

We have our first all-hands meeting scheduled for 8:00am, and one will be held every day from now through the end of the competition…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-pYSt8E-u0[/youtube]

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 13)

The picture is a closeup of a portion of the USST climber.  The two tubes on either side, I am told, are to carry payload.  In addition to having to climb 2 meters / second in order to qualify for prize money, the amount of payload being carried on a qualifying run is one of the elements in the formula to determine the winner.  Click on the thumbnail for a larger version of the picture.

Here are a couple of USST-related videos taken today.

The first is their climber (minus the collectors).  The USST Team members in the video told me that this is the real climber, not a mock-up or backup.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8Uxp6LAwC4[/youtube]

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This second video is of two USST team members preparing some water to be used in cooling their laser.  They are filtering and de-ionizing ordinary tap water to suit their purpose.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R61hIEO1h2w[/youtube]

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 12)

Here is a photo (not very good quality, sorry, I took it from the video) and two videos of today’s qualifying runs for the Kansas City Space Pirates.  They actually did three runs in all.  I bumped into the YouTube limit of 100MB per file.  My file was 288MB so I had to cut out the two qualifying runs and upload them separately.  Anyway, here they are.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXsMhIyEOJY[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KT1cKmbNfQ[/youtube]

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As always, click on the thumbnail for a larger version of the picture.

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 11)

Problems for the McGill Space Elevator team.  It seems that they had an accident on the way to the Fairgrounds.  From the photo, it looks like they took a turn too fast and the truck tipped over.  I’m told, however, that something went wrong with one of their wheels and they got hit by a tractor-trailer.  I’m not sure if that is true – I’ll have to wait to talk to them to get the straight skinny.

I received two emails from Cyrus.  The first (accompanied by the picture) reads as follows:

FYI, our wrecked trailer. At least no one was hurt.
We’ll be in Farmington soon!

That’s good news.  Equipment can be replaced, people cannot.  The second email reads as follows:

Ted,I see you’ve renamed us McGillworks. We actually have our own
white-light beam powered system we’re going to attempt first, so we’re
indeed ‘McGill Space Elevator Team’!See you this morning.Cyrus

So it looks like we’ll see them on Tuesday morning.  Hopefully their equipment was undamaged, or at least repairable…

Click on the thumbnail for a larger version of the picture.

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 9)

So, it’s Monday, October 15th and another beautiful day here at the site of the 2007 Space Elevator Games.

The latest developmen is that the LaserMotive team and equipment have arrived.  Tom Nugent, Project Manager for LaserMotive, told me he was here yesterday – I guess I missed him.  But their equipment arrived about an hour ago.  I’ll be posting on that later.

We now have 5 teams on site; USST, KC Space Pirates, E-T-C, UBC Snowstar and now LaserMotive.  3 more to go…

In the meantime, here is a video clip showing the Kansas City Space Pirates getting ready for a qualifying run.  As everything has to be set up for this, it will probably take some hours to get it ready to go.  Future qualification runs should go quicker.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLWzF2SP49U[/youtube]

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 8)

USST found itself in the position of having to make a new collector array.  The cells in this array needed to be mounted on a composite “sandwich” of several materials which had to be bonded together.  They needed a flat surface to place the sandwich on and then had to be able to put a large amount of pressure on the sandwich to make sure that the adhesives used would bond properly.  They initially asked permission to use one of the steel plates (shown in Entry 2), but this didn’t work out because it would have been extremely difficult to place this weight on top of the sandwich in a manner which would have slowly and evenly increased the pressure.

The solution they came up with was ingenious – once the sandwiches were “made”, they stacked them on top of each other and put a couple of sheets of plywood on top (to even out the pressure).  They then put a large pail of water onto the center of the sandwich and then surrounded the pail with four large garbage cans, one at each corner.  They then slowly and evenly filled the garbage cans with water until there was more than a half-ton of pressure; enough to make the bonds solid.

As I said, ingenious.  All the materials were on hand and cost them nothing.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwV-eWocrOY[/youtube]

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(Note the overexposed portions of the team member’s uniforms.  This is reflective tape which reflected the light from my camcorder’s flash unit.  Click on the thumbnails for a larger version of the picture)

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 7)

Last year, the Kansas City Space Pirates had the field to themselves in using reflected sunlight to power their climber.  This year, UBC-Snowstar is doing something similar.  But rather than have a “mass of mirrors” (as the Space Pirates do), they are building “massive mirrors” to power their climber.

There will be two of these monsters, each 8 feet by 16 feet.  They will be mounted on some very sturdy pivots and swiveled to beam sunlight onto their Climber.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xblt9GT_gNI[/youtube]

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The picture is another shot of their solar-cell-array-to-be.  As always, click on the thumbnail to view a larger version.

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 6)

A few more YouTube Videos of today’s activities.

This first one is of the building now currently called “Climber Row.”  The Climber teams are setting up shop here for last minute work.  Wednesday or Thursday, they will exit this building and move their Climbers to the Exhibition Hall.  This building, then, will become the home for the Light Racers competition, basically RC cars powered by beams of light.  At the end of the video, we see Ben Shelef – fearless leader of the whole shebang…[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h1qipX-tQc[/youtube]

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This next video is of Exhibition Hall, where the Climbers are going to be moved to once they are ready to go.  They should all be mounted on tethers hanging from the ceiling in front of their “stalls”.  If we can get all of them to be displayed at one time, it should look outstandingly cool…[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIHM46mYbM4[/youtube]

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This last video is a 360 degree panoramic shot.  I was standing between the Climber Row and Exhibition Hall buildings…[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1JFx4qKUrc[/youtube]

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 4)

Did you know that there was a Space Elevator toy?  Neither did I.  This was brought by the Japanese team, E-T-C and is a riot to watch.  I asked Akira (team leader) where they found this – he told me they got it on eBay!  I love it!!

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGb1YHGhGqU[/youtube]

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Click on the thumbnail picture for a larger version.

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 3)

Here are some more pictures taken today…

These are some of the solar arrays for the UBC Snowstar Climber.  They have been unpacked, are being checked out and will be mated to the Climber frame.

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This is the frame of the UBC Snowstar Climber.  As with the solar cells, it is being made ready for assembly and testing.

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This is Clayton Ruszkowski – fearless leader of team USST.  I can’t wait to see them unveil their laser powered Climber.

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This is Akira Tsuchida and other team members of E-T-C, shortly after they arrived.  They’re unload their equipment into Climber Row

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As always, click on the thumbnails for a larger version.

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 2)

Here are some pictures of the “nuts and bolts” of the ribbon raceway from today:

The tether the Climbers will travel on will be fastened at ground level to these pictured steel, highway-repair plates.  Each one weighs about a ton.

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These are the dampers (partially assembled) used to minimize the whipping about of the tether which will be almost surely caused by local wind conditions.  This was a real problem last year – hopefully well addressed this year.

This is the trolley which will sit at the top of the ribbon.  The Climbers will ascend updates to this trolley.  A trigger mechanism at the top will stop the Climbers ascent.  I’m told a camera is also going to be posted on this, so this should give us some pretty cool shots.

As always, click on the thumbnails for a larger version.

2007 Space Elevator Games – (Entry 1)

It’s Sunday.  I arrived in town last night.  3 teams arrived at the competition site yesterday (Kansas City Space Pirates, USST and UBC-Snowstar).  E-T-C arrived a little while ago, so we now have 4 teams on site.  We are expecting 4 more; “McGillWorks” (a partnership between the McGill team and Punkworks), Centaurus, LaserMotive and the the Technology Tycoons (formerly LiteWon).

So we should have 8 teams competing in the Climber / Power-Beaming competition.  2 will be laser powered (LaserMotive and USST), two will be Microwave powered (McGillWorks and Centaurus), 3 will be solar-powered (Technology Tycoons, Kansas City Space Pirates and UBC-Snowstar) and one will be spotlight powered (E-T-C).  In addition, I’m told that Centaurus may also compete as a solar-powered team.

We also have two tether teams coming; Astroaraneae (last year’s champion) and MIT.  I imagine we won’t be seeing them until later in the week.  If they show up earlier, I’ll be sure and blog about it.

So, lots of options – lots of technology on display.

The venue is wonderful, far better than we had last year.  The two buildings being used for “Climber Row” and the Light Racer games are large, solid structures with very high ceilings.  Lots of windows, lots of power outlets, lots of Internet outlets.  In addition, we’ll have an “Office building” for the press and for Spaceward and for team meetings.

Right now the weather is beautiful, about 70 degrees with a blue sky.  The mountains in the background make a wonderful backdrop.  I hope it doesn’t rain, though.  There are a lot of dirt and grass areas and things could get muddy if they do.

So, if you haven’t decided whether or not you want to come, I urge you to do so – it should be a great show.  We have lots of sophisticated technology and teams.  The video (the first of many videos and pictures to be posted by yours truly) is a panoramic view of the competition area.

We’re open to the public for the finals; October 19th, 20th and 21st.  Come one, come all – it’s the 2007 Space Elevator Games!!!

Videos from the Kansas City Space Pirates

Brian sent me links to these videos a couple of days ago – just getting around to posting them now.  The first video shows things now going so well.  However, the second video is his qualifying run. They’ve certainly changed their design from last year.  This year’s model more resembles the “kites” that several teams had last year (UBC-Snowstar and TurboCrawler, among others).  We’ll see how it handles in the winds of Utah…

Testing going badly

Qualifying

The picture is a screen shot I took off of the Qualifying video.  Click on it for a larger version.

Finally, Brian points out an article he wrote on Heliobeaming.   There are enough formulas in the article to satisfy most hard-core geeks 🙂

Still more team news…

I received this word from the McGill Space Elevator Team:

Ted, You can take the ‘possibly in conjunction’ out on your blurp about us: we’re definitely using Punkwork’s beam source and rectenna after a stint with our PV array.

See you in Salt Lake.

Cyrus

A few days ago, Allen Atamer posted some pictures of this new configuration on his Facebook page.  As always, click on them to view a larger version.



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This is exciting news – our first confirmed Microwave Team! We’ll see how they stack up to the two laser-powered teams (USST and LaserMotive) and two the solar powered teams (KC Space Pirates and Snowstar).  Competition is a wonderful thing, yes indeed…

More team news…

I received this email from Brian Turner, captain and fearless leader of the Kansas City Space Pirates:

The trailers are packed and we should leave in just a few hours. There are 4 other teams that are definitely coming, 9 that have dropped out, and 8 unknowns. That makes me feel pretty good about our chances. It is harder to send out these messages on the road so I wanted to point you all to the best source of timely information.

The Space Elevator Blog

Ted Semon posts most days, and promised to post several times a day during the comp. There is supposed to be a video feed of the competition. I figure the Space Elevator blog will post it’s location.

Brian

Thanks for the kind words Brian – I try !

And, this late word from Arthur Shay of Team Zero G:

Hi Ted,

I’m disappointed to say we were not able to complete our entry in time for this years climb. We tried until the last minute but as the deadline for the climb video ticked by our fate was sealed. The good news is I am still coming on the 18th to represent my team and displaying our climber (minus transmitter) on climber row. I think there is much to be learned by attending. I hope to static test our climbers ribbon mounting system against the full tension of the real ribbon, and perhaps win some recognition for design innovations and Space Elevator program presentation. Who knows maybe even pickup a few new team member, and if lucky some pointers from the other teams. If nothing else I can show my support for the Space Elevator and the teams that were able to finish in time. I don’t know if it is true. But I have heard that sometimes sponsorship angels attend these events, “wink wink know what I mean A”, we could all use a little of that! I am looking forward to meeting you at the venue.

Cordially,

Arthur Shay
Team leader
Team Zero G

So, that makes 5 teams definitely in, 10 teams definitely out, with 7 more to be heard from (see my previous post on this)…

A pause…

Posting will be spotty or non-existent for the next couple of days.  I’m off to St. Paul, Minnesota to visit my youngest daughter (attending the University of Minnesota) and to watch my son in the AKA Diamonds Karate Tournament.  Saturday, however, I fly to Salt Lake City to attend and cover this year’s Space Elevator Games and the posting pace will pick up…

UBC-Snowstar gives us a look

I received this media advisory today from Damir Hot, the Team Captain of UBC Snowstar:

MEDIA ADVISORY | OCTOBER 10, 2007
UBC space elevator team unveils solar-powered prototype for $500,000 NASA competition

What:   Media preview of space elevator climber prototype
When:   Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007, 9 a.m. – Noon ONLY
Where:  UBC Physics and Astronomy Extracurricular Projects Laboratory Rm122 Hennings Building, 6224 Agricultural Rd., UBC Vancouver
For a map and directions, visit http://www.maps.ubc.ca/?652

Signs will be posted to lead media from UBC Bookstore to the lab.

UBC Snowstar, a team of UBC engineering physics students, will unveil to the media the latest prototype of their solar-powered space elevator robot, set to compete in the 2007 NASA Beam Power Challenge.

Held in the Greater Salt Lake City Area, Utah, during Oct. 19-21, the NASA competition challenges entrants to design, build and race a space elevator “climber” capable of efficiently lifting a payload 400 feet (120 metres) straight up a cable using only power “beamed” from a remote source on the ground. Climbers must reach a minimum speed of 6.6 feet (two metres) per second to qualify.

UBC Snowstar has been featured in The New York Times and on CNN. They will compete with more than 20 international teams for the US $500,000 grand prize and an opportunity to revolutionize space technology. UBC is one of only two teams that have qualified to compete in all three NASA Beam Power Challenges, meeting performance benchmarks that double each year. For example, the 2006 competition required teams to lift a payload 200 feet (60 metres) at a minimum speed of 3.3 feet (one metre) per second.

“Currently, the cost of launching a space shuttle is so high partly due to the amount of fuel the shuttle carries in order to propel itself into space,” says Snowstar team captain Damir Hot. “Using solar or other beamed power sources to efficiently fuel space vehicles could be the key to eventually providing space transport at significantly lower financial and environmental costs.”

NB: UBC Snowstar will be available to display the space elevator on Thursday, Oct. 11 ONLY. Also available will be a DVD that provides footage of UBC’s solar-powered climber in action. Please contact Lorraine Chan to confirm attendance. Space is limited.

Photos of the climber are available at www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/download/

For more information on the competition, visit http://centennialchallenges.nasa.gov/cc_challenges.htm#beampower

-30-

********************************************
CONTACT

Lorraine Chan
UBC Public Affairs
Tel: 604.822.3213
Cell: 604.828.3867
E-mail: lorraine[DOT]chan[AT]ubc.ca

mr-07-091

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The press advisory carries a link to a zip file of photos (4 in all).  I’ve reproduced two of them in this email.  One is of the UBC Snowstar climber in action while the other is a team photo.  Click on them for a larger version or follow the link and download the photos.  Both of these photos are courtesy of UBC-Snowstar.

Winnow, winnow, winnow…

I’ve heard from several more teams (Space Elevator Team at UT, Recens, Team Rambo I / Team Telsa, Queens Space Elevator Racing Team, Lone Star and MIT) that they are NOT competing this year in the Climber / Power-Beaming competition (MIT will still be competing in the Tether competition).

So, this is what I know so far:

Teams definitely in:

#230 – McGill  Space Elevator Team (possibly in conjunction with Punkworks – more on this later) – Searchlights or Microwave

#234 – Kansas City Space Pirates – Solar

#235 – LaserMotive – Laser

#241 – USST – Laser

#253 – UBC Snowstar – Solar

Teams definitely out:

#222 – Starlifters

#226 – MIT Space Elevator Team (again Climber / Power-Beaming only – Tether team will play)

#228 – Team Telsa

#236 – Andromeda Connection

#239 – M Climber

#240 – Lone Star

#242 – Queens Space Elevator Racing Team

#244 – Recens

#245 – Space Elevator Team at UT (University of Tennessee)

Teams I have not heard from:

#221 – Space Invaders

#225 – Team Zero G

#237 – University of Alberta Space Elevator Racing Team

#238 – Uplifting Experience

#243 – Lite Won (Technology Tycoons) – Last year’s second best finisher

#246 – University of Idaho Engineering

#249 – E-T-C (I’m pretty sure they’re playing but haven’t heard from them definitively yet – they might be in transit from Japan)

#250 – Centaurus

I’m disappointed, of course, that not all of the teams can make it, but I’m especially disappointed that neither of the two European entries (Team Telsa and Recens) will be here.  Recens was cursed with tremendously bad luck last year and the Space Elevator Gods should have put this situation aright.  I guess it was not to be.

I’m fairly sure that at least 3-4 entrants from the “Don’t know” list will be playing too, but I won’t move them to the “Definitely in” list until I’m “Definitely sure” 🙂

Both teams listed for the Tether competition (Astroaranaea and MIT) WILL be there.

As I get more replies or information from other sources, I will update this list.

Interview with KC Space Pirates Brian Turner now online

As I wrote a few days ago, Brian Turner, the Captain and Fearless Leader of the Kansas City Space Pirates, was going to be interviewed on Zookers Radio.

This interview is now online and can be accessed here.  The actual interview runs from about 13:15 to 47:06 of the entire broadcast so you can just skip to that point if you want.

The most interesting quote from Brian (IMHO) was in regards to how fragile the Solar cells they are working with are: “The Solar Cells we’re using are more fragile than a saltine cracker.”  Perhaps he used that analogy because of their motif; they ARE the Kansas City Space Pirates and Brian IS the captain and ALL Pirate Captains have a Parrot on their shoulder and everyone associates the phrase “Polly want a cracker?” with Pirates… 🙂

It’s a pretty thorough interview and Brian acquits himself well…

The winnowing continues…

I just received this email from Brian Baca, of the University of Michigan’s MClimber team:

I’m afraid that MClimber will not be ready to compete this year. As usual there are a lot of last minute issues, but we do not have enough time to sort them out along with our classwork and midterms. The team is looking to compete next year, but nothing is official yet.

Major bummer – they did so well in last year’s competition and I was really looking forward to seeing how they were going to do this year.

Let’s hope for their return next year and, as I wrote in my last post, perhaps we’ll see them in both the Climber / Power-Beaming competition and the Tether competition.

Another way to skin the cat?

In last year’s Space Elevator Games Climber / Power-Beaming event, the University of Michigan’s MClimber achieved the distinction of being the first Climber to make it to the top of a competition ribbon.  They are entered again this year, but have been very quiet about what they are going to do (psst – there are no Climbers entered from Appalachian State, so it’s safe 🙂 )

In this article, Engineers from the University of Michigan have come up with this “By mimicking a brick-and-mortar molecular structure found in seashells, University of Michigan researchers created a composite plastic that’s as strong as steel but lighter and transparent.”

The traditional understanding of how carbon nanotubes will be used to construct the Elevator is by weaving or bonding ultra-long fibers together (at least that’s my understanding).  This approach from the U of M is different and may present an alternative way of creating a tether.  Yes, I know, there are issues with doing it this way.  But this is “rev 1” of this approach and it may turn out to have some promise.

And if it does, next year we may see a University of Michigan entrant into both the Climber / Power Beaming event and the Tether event.  Here’s hoping…

Associates and competitors…

“If the Space Elevator is our best option [for an alternative way to space], it’s going to be a long, long road” – so says Dr. David Livingston in this very interesting interview from July of 2006 with Dr. Jordin Kare, the same Dr. Kare who is part of LaserMotive, one of the entrants into this year’s Space Elevator Games.

In this interview, Dr. Kare’s describes using Laser propulsion for getting payloads into orbit differently than using lasers to power a Space Elevator.  Dr. Kare touts the capabilities of “Laser Launch”, using a ground-based laser to power a spacecraft by heating up a propellant it carries rather than the Space Elevator concept whereby a ground-based laser, again aimed at the space craft (the climber) would power a photovoltaic array, generating electricity for the Climber to use.

In this interview, Dr. Livingston asks Dr. Kare for his opinion of the Space Elevator.  Dr. Kare replies that he considers people working on the Space Elevator to be “associates and competitors”…

Competitors indeed.  Dr. Kare also stated in the interview that the highest any device had been sent using the “Laser Launch” approach was a couple of hundred feet.  So, perhaps he and the LaserMotive team will beat this in the competition this year.  At the Games, I’ll be sure to seek out Dr. Kare and ask him his opinion of the Space Elevator now and to see what the status of “Laser Launch” is at this time…

In the show notes, Dr. Livingston also states: “Certainly [Laser Launch] can be brought on line faster and cheaper than the space elevator.”  We shall see…

While poking around the ‘net, I came across this article, describing using the concept of Laser Launch to dispose of nuclear wastes, a potential use of the Space Elevator, too…

More from Arthur C. Clarke…

It is no mystery why this blog has had several references / postings to Arthur C. Clarke.  In addition to being an outstanding sci-fi writer and futurist, he is also the guy who, more than anyone else, has popularized the concept of a Space Elevator.

In his latest missive (available here), he talks about many things, including his pleasure at the gradual acceptance of the idea of a Space Elevator and his three wishes:

1. A method to generate limitless quantities of clean energy.

2. Affordable and reliable means of space transport.

3. Eliminating the design faults in the human body

I can only agree.  Sir Clarke turns 90 this year, on December 16th.  I hope there is some sort of celebration planned for this.

Read the article – it’s quite enjoyable…

Kansas City Space Pirates’ Brian Turner to be interviewed tomorrow

I received this email from Eric Rager of Zookers Radio:

“Join the Zookers Radio Program on Saturday, October 6th at 7:00 pm central time for an interview with Brian Turner of the Kansas City Space Pirates.  Brian and his team are competing in the Spaceward Games 2007 with their space elevator design.

Show link:  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/zookers/2007/10/07/tba“

This show is hosted by “Rob and Eric, the Greek Gods of Internet Radio”.  By Zeus that’s a great tagline!!

They have their other shows archived, so I’m sure this one will be too – if you miss the live broadcast, you can catch-up with it later.  I’ll post the link when it becomes available.

Just two more weeks…

Two weeks from today, the finals of the Spaceward Games begin.  I will be in Utah for the entire event, including the preliminaries, and will be thoroughly documenting them here.  If Verizon’s EVDO network is active at the Fairgrounds (and, according to their coverage map, it is), you can expect at least 8-10 posts per day from me during the event, as well as a nightly summary.  I still haven’t figured out how to upload pictures to this blog from my Treo, but I’m working on it 🙂

As this is the Space Elevator Blog, my interest and coverage will be concentrated on both the Climber / Power Beaming competition and the Tether competition.  There is also, new this year, the “Great Light Racers” competition which I may go visit if I get bored…

It’s still not too late to make plans to go.  The weather should be fabulous (hope for no rain) and the competition intense.  Only two more weeks…

How to (really) fix a ribbon

Several days ago, LaserMotive put up an entry on their blog describing a tear that had developed in their test ribbon and asking for people to comment on how they thought it might be fixed.

I wrote on my blog, slightly tongue-in-cheek, that this would be a perfect job for duct tape, but later, on the LaserMotive website, put up my real suggestion (basically sewing it back together).

LaserMotive has now documented how they have fixed this problem.  Click here to see both their temporary and permanent solution.

(Picture from the LaserMotive blog.  Click on it or visit their blog to view a larger version.)

50 years ago today…

October 4, 1957.  50 years ago today.  Russia (excuse me, the Soviet Union) launched Sputnik and, with it, humanity’s first successful step into space.  From Wikipedia:

“The surprise launch of Sputnik 1, coupled with the spectacular failure of the United States’ first two Project Vanguard launch attempts, shocked the United States, which responded with a number of early satellite launches, including Explorer I, Project SCORE, and Courier 1B. The Sputnik crisis also led to the creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA and NASA, and to major increases in U.S. government spending on scientific research and education…Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4, 1957. The satellite was 58 cm (about 23 in) in diameter and weighed approximately 83.6 kg (about 183 lb). Each of its elliptical orbits around the Earth took about 96 minutes. Monitoring of the satellite was done by Amateur radio operators.”

It is impossible to overstate the impact this event has had on humanity.  Other writers, much more talented than I, have waxed poetic about what the launch of Sputnik meant.  Suffice it to say that without it and it’s follow on achievements (and failures), the world would be a much different place, and poorer off, than it is today.

???????????? !!

And today, Google is displaying a modified logo to celebrate this achievement.

(Picture of Sputnik from here – click on it for a larger version)