At the Elevator2010 team page, one can see that nineteen teams have filed to compete in this year’s Space Elevator Games.   Most fascinating, to me anyway, are the entries from Iran, the Ukraine and Japan as this is the first year teams from these countries intend to compete.  There are also three teams from Germany who have filed; the rest are from Canada and the USA.

Seventeen of the teams have filed for the Climber competition with the other two filing intent to participate in the Tether competition.

All of this filing is, of course, before the February 1st deadline – the date when money is due.  When that date arrives, we’ll probably start losing some of these teams; separating the “ascenders from the pretenders” as it were…

Nevertheless, even if some of these teams drop out, I think it is encouraging to see how widely the idea of a Space Elevator and the interest in the Space Elevator Games has spread – it is truly becoming international.  My only disappointment is that we’ve seen nothing yet from “down under” – where are the teams from Perth who want to eventually build one of these in their ocean front property?

Here’s a link to a story on SpaceRef.com about the new head of the X Prize Foundation.  Though the story does not deal explicitly with the Space Elevator, Elevator2010 did partner with the X Prize Foundation for the 2006 Space Elevator Games and may again do so this year.

Ben Shelef sent me these comments on NOVA show.  I wondered why this had happened…

As some of you may have noticed, out of two televised moments of fame I was awarded by NOVA, I spent one hitting Dr. Edwards. That’s 50% of my public face time spent on violence directed at celebrities.

For the record then: I remember the moment very vividly. Brad just showed me the stopwatch stopped on “57? and within about a third of a second, I roller-coasted between “hell yeah they made it” (thinking the ribbon was 60 m long) to “oh no they’re a hair too slow” (remembering we shortened the ribbon because of oscillations) to “oh boy we need to figure out ribbon stretch (as reality settled in), and so the semi-confused body language you all got to see started out as a pat on the back and deteriorated into a concatenation of hell-yeah-oh-no-oh-boy.  So There.

Also, Brad hit me first, but they didn’t show that.:)

May we receive a lot more coverage like this, and congratulations to all the teams that really shone in this piece. The competition is nothing more than the sum total of the teams, and with statements like “you’re definitely going to see things go wrong today!” we can’t really go wrong.

Thanks to Joe McMaster and the rest of the NOVA crew for making such a neat segment. Extra credit for the spinning Yo-Yo shot.

Ben

First, the good news.  It appears that a show which regularly airs on the Science Channel, Discoveries this Week, had a segment on Space Elevators and the recent Space Elevator Games.  The bad news – there was no heads-up to this and all of us (with the exception of Brian Turner of the Kansas City Space Pirates) missed it.  Brian says he cannot find this on the web at all, and, after some looking on my own, neither can I.  But I have faith that someone will find it.

Here’s the link to the Discoveries this Week URL.  If anyone can track down a web version of this show, please, please, please let me know.

Thanks, Brian…

As blogged about earlier (here, here and here), NOVA Science Now recently aired a segment on the development of a Space Elevator.  That clip can be viewed here.

I’ve just finished watching the NOVA Science Now show featuring, among other topics, the Space Elevator.  It was nice to see a science show that had the technical facts straight (I didn’t catch any errors – if anyone did, please correct me).  They also did a good job, in the few minutes they alloted to it, of covering the Climber competition at this year’s Space Elevator Games.  Again, they had their facts right; the University of Michigan’s Climber was first to the top, Lite-Won and TurboCrawler also made it to the top, and the USST team made it to the top in nearly prize-awarding time.

It would have been nice, however, if they had mentioned how much prize money was at stake, especially now since NASA has increased the prize money significantly – I think that would have been quite newsworthy.  Also worth mentioning, I think, would have been the Tether competition and the fact that the Space Elevator Games are an annual competition – with the third one coming up this year.

Brian Turner and the Kansas City Space Pirates must be happy with the show as they were prominently mentioned in it – there is no doubt that the “Death Ray” they attempted to ride to the top was quite unique.

As soon as the show is available online, I’ll post a link to it.  Also, on January 16th, we’re supposed to be able to see answers from Dr. Brad Edwards to questions posted to him/NOVA.  I’ll link to that when available, too.

All in all, good, free, publicity from a recognized source – and one can’t complain about that.

I received this email earlier today from Ben Shelef, CEO of The Spaceward Foundation.

Hello Folks.

A short email this time.

First and foremost, Joe McMaster and Anna Lee Strachan from Nova wanted us to remind you to tune in to their Space Elevator segment today (Tuesday, January 9) at 8pm on PBS – check your local listing.

Joe and Anna came down to watch and film the competition at Las Cruces last October, so there may footage there we’ve never seen before.

The show URL is http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3401/02.html
Another item that was on our back burner for way too long is a comprehensive FAQ section, which you can now browse at http://www.elevator2010.org/faq.html

Thanks to Vern McGeorge for getting this project going so many months ago.

We have a lot more questions and answers on file – we’ll be updating the FAQ on a regular basis.  If you have a question you want answered, go ahead and email us.  If you have a question and an answer and maybe a nice illustration to go with – email them too and we may add them to the FAQ, with credits.
Finally, team registration is in progress towards the early-bird registration deadline at the end of this month.  More details will follow in February, when we have an official headcount.
Cheers,

  Ben, Meekk and the Spaceward Crew

Don’t forget – tomorrow is the date when the NOVA Science Now episode featuring the efforts to develop a Space Elevator airs.

You’ll need to check your local listings of course.  Here in the Chicago area, it is supposed to air on the local PBS station, WTTW, at 8:00pm Central Time.

The official website for the episode is here (you can also find local airing times from this website).  If you go here, you can see a brief preview of the show.  According to the website, the show will be archived and available for viewing online beginning January 10th.

Update – Blogcritics.com opines about the show here.

I’ve just received an email from Ben Shelef, CEO of the Spaceward Foundation, clarifying / expanding some subjects in some earlier posts I’ve made today.  Ben’s email is as follows;

1: dates (Note – he’s referring to the dates of the 2007 Space Elevator Games)

We don’t know yet how long the competition will run.  We want to run for 3-4 days, and have each team run at least once per day.  X-Prize Cup are not sure about their plans yet, and so neither are we.  The tentative date they have on the web site is 10/20 – 10/21, but that’s suspiciously similar to this year’s show, even though the days of the week are Sat-Sun rather then Fri-Sat.

If they do partner up with the airshow at Holloman AFB, well, the 2005 show was only a 1-day affair, and we’d make sure we have extra days for ourselves.

In short – don’t book tickets yet.

2: qualification video

In the qualification video, you need to show a zero-payload, 1 m/s ascent (2.4.d), and a full-cycle of operation within the allowed timeframe of 30 minutes.

3: my cell number below was wrong in the last email – please note. (Note – I’d already fixed this for the web posting, but the original email sent out had the wrong phone number)

Ben

——————————————–
Ben Shelef
The Spaceward Foundation
ben AT Spaceward.org
650-793-4987
http://www.spaceward.org/
http://www.elevator2010.org/

Wirefly X Prize Cup was the partner for the 2006 Space Elevator Games.  While no decision has yet been made as to whether or not this partnership will continue in 2007, it certainly is a strong possibility.

In this article dated December 17, 2006, Wirefly X Prize Cup expansion plans for 2007 are discussed.

And, on the X Prize Cup website, the dates of October 20-21, 2007 are given for the 2007 X Prize Cup games.  So, if the partnership between X Prize Cup and the Space Elevator Games continues this year, these are the dates you should be reserving…

Version 1.00 (the hopefully final version) of the Rulebooks for this year Space Elevator games have now been published.  You can find the Tether competition rulebook here and the Climber competition rulebook here.

Elevator2010 has sent an email to all interested parties (reproduced below, with the permission of Elevator 2010’s CEO, Ben Shelef), strongly encouraging them to register by the end of this month.

Hello Folks – Happy New Year!

You’re getting this email because you’ve either submitted an NOI, expressed informal interest, asked us enough questions about the rules, or are otherwise affiliated with the 2007 competition.  If you’re not playing this year, let me know and I will remove you from the list.

We have just received from NASA the official approved team agreements for both Beam Power and Tether competitions. This was the last missing piece of paperwork, so we are now good and ready to proceed.  We hope you are too.

At the bottom of each of the two competition pages (http://www.elevator2010.org/competitionClimber2007.html and
http://www.elevator2010.org/competitionTether2007.html) you will now find:

1:  Rulebook version 1.00  (Yes – this is the baseline official version. We do not intend to make any more changes, though the usual caveat holds.)

2:  Team agreement, with official language regarding participation of non-US teams. (life is a bit easier this year)

3:  NOI questionnaire, which we’d like you to fill out and submit along with the NOI.  (those that have done so obviously do not have to re-submit)

So:
If you’ve submitted an NOI, please make sure you submit the questionnaire. Download, print, read, *understand* and fill out the team agreement. Fax us a copy to 650-965-2907, and send in the signed agreement, with registration fees, to: The Spaceward Foundation 725 N. Shoreline Blvd Mountain View, CA 94043

Please try to complete the process by Jan 31st.

The registration deadline is for the faxed registration forms, on 1/31/07, midnight PST. We’ll expect the registration papers to follow by mail no later than 2/15/07.

We’re looking forward to an even faster competition this year. We plan to make 2007 bigger than 2006 in much the same amount that 2006 was bigger than 2005.  In other words, we plan to rock the world.

We hope to see you on board soon,

Cheers,

  Ben

——————————————–
Ben Shelef
The Spaceward Foundation
ben AT spaceward.org
650-793-4987
http://www.spaceward.org
http://www.elevator2010.org

Posting a link to this newsletter a bit late…

Version 0.94 of this rulebook is now up and available for review.  Here you can find the changes from version 0.93 to 0.94 discussed.  Of course everything can be accessed from the Elevator2010 website.  As always, submit comments and recommendations to Ben Shelef at Ben AT Spaceward.org.

Ben also has the following comment on the remarks (here and here) by Professor Mark Welland.

“It’s a known fact that popular journalism, both technical and mainstream, tends to exaggerate claims. There is no argument that the SE CNT tether does not exist yet, and is much stronger than anything we produce today – nothing to the contrary was ever claimed. Still, it is not laughable to predict that totally new technology will result in large improvements, especially when the mechanism of this technology is understood. CNTs are strong enough, and composites and ropes exhibit tensile strengths very close to that of their native fibers. There’s enough evidence that the CNT tether is feasible – saying we can’t get there because we’re not already there is dead-end thinking. Just my 2c.”

Several weeks ago, I had posted a link to TopSpacer’s article at hobbyspace.com, an article discussing “funding for the Centennial Challenges program will be zeroed out for 2007” and wondering what that meant.  Then a few days ago, the Space Frontier Foundation issues a press release saying essentially the same thing that TopSpacer’s article did.  I contacted Jeff Krukin, the Executive Director of the Space Frontier Foundation, and asked him if the current games are in jeopardy.  He replied that they are not;

“The prized that have already been announced are funded with money appropriated in previous years.  Future (not yet announced) prized are dependent on new funding provided in FY2007 or later, so there is no funding for new prizes.”

Yesterday, over at Alan Boyle’s Cosmic Log, he said essentially the same thing; funding for the existing prizes (including the Space Elevator challenge) is there, but funding for NEW prizes is not.

It looks like that Brian Turner’s Kansas City Space Pirates team was not discouraged by the problems they ran into in this year’s Space Elevator Games and hope they’ll be back next year.  He’s looking for sponsors to help make it happen…

At The Space Review, Alex Howerton offers an upbeat assessment of the recently XPrize Cup (and Space Elevator Games).

Version 0.93 of this rulebook is now up and available for review.  As always, submit comments and recommendations to Ben Shelef at Ben AT Spaceward.org.

The initial Rulebooks for next year’s Climber (Power Beaming) and Tether competitions have been posted by Elevator2010.  To quote Ben Shelef, Elevator2010 CEO; “We’re taking public comments on the rulebooks, [and] will post 1.0 rulebooks by the end of the month.”

The Climber (Power Beaming) rulebook can be found here and the Tether rulebook can be found here.  Of course, both are available on the Elevator2010 website.

One new item noted on the Elevator2010 website is a Climber competition for newbies; “If you are a new team, and only want to try your hand at it, we have the “limited” games, in which no money is on the line (as of yet…), the metric is 1 m/s, and the height is comparable to this year’s games. We will publish a separate rulebook for the limited competition shortly.”

So, for all you future competitors, now’s the time to get started!!  Holidays?  Who cares about the holidays?