I received several complaints today from people who said that they were following our Space Elevator Games broadcast on uStream and were using the uStream Chat feature to ask us questions, but were getting no response.

We’re very sorry about this, but we are unable to log onto the uStream chat server ourselves – I think it’s a firewall issue here at the NASA-Dryden Flight Research center.  We’re working with their network people to resolve the issue, but I’m not optimistic that it will be solved before the Games are over.  Until it is resolved, I’ve disabled the Chat feature for this broadcast so that users will not feel like they’re being ignored by us.

So, if you want to ask us questions, use the Social Stream feature of uStream.  Unfortunately it requires that you have a Twitter account, but it’s the best we’re going to be able to do right now.  We did use this today and I responded to all of the questions that were sent to us.

I freely admit that our broadcasts are not ‘professional’ or of the ‘highest quality’.  We’re all volunteers, we’re all new at this and we’re all doing the best we can.  Bryan Laubscher and myself (who are your hosts for these broadcasts) are monitoring several sources of information simultaneously to try and provide you with the latest updates.  We’re working on limiting the ‘information conflicts’ and also promise to try and refrain from drumming on the table while we’re broadcasting 🙂

Tomorrow, the number of Media personnel here in the ISF (the NASA facility that we are broadcasting from) will also be less and this will also help us try and keep things on a more even keel – we were trying to answer questions from the Press while also trying to follow the NASA radio chatter (of which we could only hear one side) and second-by-second updates provided by Ben Shelef to me via cell-phone.

Also, rather than logging into uStream directly, I would strongly urge you to go to the  http://live.spaceelevatorgames.org website.  In addition to being able to watch the live broadcast, you can also view saved video clips and pictures.  You can also chat with us (again, via the Social Streams Twitter function) by clicking on the CHAT link at the bottom of the page.

Finally, I truly do appreciate the comments and (constructive) criticism I’ve received, either via email or as comments sent to my Blog.  It’s helped us spot where the errors are and is being used by us to improve our Broadcast.  But for those very few of you who have decided to make the criticisms personal, please keep your venom to yourself; it is not needed or appreciated and, in the future, will be ignored.

Day 2 of the Space Elevator Games starts in just a few hours.  USST is scheduled to be up first and we’re aiming for their climb window to open up at 7:00am Pacific Time.  Once they’ve had a chance to Climb, the three teams will get together with Ben Shelef and decide on the order for the next set of Climbs.  These should start shortly after the initial USST run.

So, four runs scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday.  Today was great – tomorrow should be even better and more exciting…

Stay tuned!

As I noted in an update to my previous post, LaserMotive’s second climb was 1 second faster than their first one.  So, right now the time to beat is 4 minutes, 1 second.  Over (nominally) 900 meters, that works out to about 3.73 meters/second.

What a great way to finish day 1 of the 2009 Space Elevator Games!

I had a quick chat with some of the Kansas City Space Pirates and they expressed confidence that they have taken care of the problems that plagued them in their first go-round.

And, let’s not forget that USST, the team that has performed the best in all previous competitions, has yet to make a run.

Tomorrow promises to be an even more exciting day than today.  Please tune in to http://live.spaceelevatorgames.org and watch and hear the action live!

And, a few pictures of the winning team for you.  The first two are of the LaserMotive team (all except Dave Bashford) who was out in the truck watching over their climber) while the third picture is of Dave (on the right) with Ben Shelef (in the middle – CEO of the Spaceward Foundation – host of the Space Elevator Games) and Andy Petro – NASA’s person who is in charge of the NASA Centennial Challenge program.  Andy will be handing out the check(s) during the prize ceremony (date/time yet to be determined).

Those first two pictures show the LaserMotive team being interviewed by Fox News.  ABC, AP and some local press were also present.  Look for LaserMotive to be on the news tonight!

More pictures are on the official site of the Space Elevator Games (http://www.spaceelevatorgames.org).  Click on the LIVE COVERAGE button on the top and then click on the LATEST PICS button on the right hand side.

Again, congratulations LaserMotive – you’ve done us all proud!

(Update – I mis-identified Dave Bashford as Carsten Erickson – sorry guys…)

Today history was made.  The Team LaserMotive climber traveled the raceway (approximately 900 meters) in 4 minutes, 2 seconds, about 3.72 meters/second.  This run more than doubles the previous best beam-powered climb (performed by USST in the 2007 competition) of 1.8 meters/second.

While this run does not qualify for the 5 meters/second prize, it easily qualifies for the 2 meter/second prize – a cool $900,000…

Their performance was very impressive.  On their first run, their climber would not move at all.  They brought the climber down and did ‘something’ to it (I’ll find out what it was and report back – and I’m sure it will be on their blog, too).  They then ran the course in the aforementioned 4 minutes and 2 seconds.  For good measure, they did it again, in approximately the same time.

And this is just their first shot.  They’ll have another chance tomorrow (and, perhaps, Friday) to better their time.

Pictures and more info will be up soon.

In the meantime, congratulations to LaserMotive!

(Correction: Their second run was completed in 4 minutes and 1 second; 1 second faster than their first run – Well Done!)

KCSP made several attempts this morning.  While they were able to climb under laser power, they did not make it to the top.  I’m sure they’re working this issue now.

Next up is LaserMotive.

Watch us live at http://live.spaceelevatorgames.org.

We’re also taking questions and will try to answer them.  We unfortunately are unable to use the uStream chat service – we can’t log into their chat server.  I suspect this is a firewall issue and that’s for NASA to decide whether or not we can access that.  In the meantime, we’re using the ‘Social Service’ feature of uStream.  It works, but you must have a Twitter account to use it.  If you care to, you can chat with us there.  Just click the “CHAT” link at the lower, left-hand corner of the http://live.spaceelevatorgames.org site. 

Today is the first day of the 2009 Space Elevator Games – Climber / Power-Beaming competition.

We’re not sure of the starting time – always last minute details to work out, but we do know the order of the teams taking a crack at it:

First up – Kansas City Space Pirates
Next up – Laser Motive
Last up – USST

Depending on the results of the first set of runs, then the order of second and subsequent runs will be set.

Log onto http://live.spaceelevatorgames.org to follow all the competition LIVE!  You can also Tweet me questions (use the CHAT button at the bottom of the web page) which I’ll try to answer for you.

Good luck to everyone!