An article from MarketWire.com discussing the Solar Cell sponsor for this year’s (and next year’s?) UBC Climber.

Over at the Elevator2010 website, the official results for this year’s Space Elevator games have been posted.

Over at the Space Elevator Reference, Dr. Brad Edwards gives his wrapup and thoughts on this year’s just completed Space Elevator Games.  He reiterates that no one won any of NASA’s prize money and talks a bit about why.  Also, he has some thoughts on next year’s games.

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.

UBC again failed to lift off.  They went up 10-12 feet at the most and then their climber began slipping on the tether again.

This finishes the first round of competition today.  There is going to be an attempt to move the competition climber over to the fairgrounds for some more climbs.  I hope it succeeds, but that’s an awfully big crane and the roads to the fairground aren’t that rolbust.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed.  The tether competition is coming up later today, too.

More soon…

The University of Michigan made a second attempt with their MClimber.  Unfortunately, they were unable to get launched in their designated window and had to pull their climber off.

So LiteWon got a second chance and made the most of it.  They made some changes and it sure showed – their second run was done in the very impressive time of 2 minutes and 2 seconds.  And their descent, under control, was accomplished in probably (I didn’t time it) under 10 seconds.  So, congratulations are also in order for LiteWon!

Up next, USST for another attempt.

We may have a winner.  The USST Team (with assistance from Recens and TurboCrawler – borrowing their lights for additional power) made it to the top in 58 seconds !!  So, they’ve met that portion of the test requirements.  There’s also a requirement that they come down in a controlled descent within 2 minutes and there is some issue about whether they made that or not.  We’ll have to see.  But no matter what, their climb was VERY impressive – especially the first half – they really zipped up the tether.  After that, the inverse-square law began to be felt and they slowed down somewhat.  But still they made it in 58 seconds.

There are all sorts of rumors flying around about what kind of deal USST cut with Recens and/or TurboCrawler to borrow their lights.  We’ll let the future sort that out.  In the meantime, congratulations USST!!!

Events are happening very quickly now, quicker than I can do a post for each attempt.

LiteWon made it to the top of the Ribbon in 5 minutes and 31 seconds, a full 1 minute and 9 seconds quicker than the University of Michigan’s MClimber did.  So, we have our second successful climb (though again, not in the time period allotted to win the prize).  Pretty impressive for a High School team…

The Kansas City Space Pirates also made an attempt, but failed/stopped about 1/2-2/3 of the way up.  Brian Turner, captain of the Space Pirates, said that he was a “victim of the winds”.  The wind would blow the climber out of alignment with the solar array, triggering a stop.  Then the wind would bring it back inline and the climbing would start.  But this began to happen so quickly at the end that the climber was essentially stuck in position.  So, back down for the Space Pirates.

USST is up next.  I’ll be posting more pictures when I have a few extra minutes.

One new development; Centaurus Aerospace has arrived – better late than never.  They have both a Climber entry (microwave powered) and a tether entry.

The qualifying tether (30′) is currently located at the fairgrounds – a place where the teams have set up shop.  The plan for tomorrow is to move the qualifying tether to the competition site – fairly near to where the competition will be held.  This will give the four teams that have not yet qualified (Punkworks, SpaceMiners, Starclimber and Centaurus Aerospace) one last chance to do so.  If any do qualify, they’ll be scheduled onto the 200 foot tether – time permitting of course.

Time will be especially tight on the competition tether and I won’t be at all surprised if the time limits placed on each try become pretty draconian tomorrow – many teams want a chance at the tether and so the time allotted for each team will be short.  Competition will be starting as early as possible in order to minimize the wind effects (which kick up later in the day).

Speaking of tethers, the tether strength competition will be held tomorrow in the afternoon.

More tomorrow…

25OCT2006 – I’ve been informed by the SpaceMiners team that I had been misstating their team name, calling it Space Miners instead of the proper SpaceMiners (one word, not two).  It is now fixed in this and previous posts – my apologies to Vince and his team.

Competition, such as it was, has ended for the day.  The only team to actually make an attempt was the University of Michigan’s MClimber which, as I had written in an earlier post, made it all the way to the top.  The wind was just too strong for TurboCrawler and the KC Space Pirates to make their attempts.

I know many of the teams are back at the fairground “camp” doing more work on their equipment in an attempt to get ready for tomorrow, so I’m off to visit them and will post on what I find in a few hours.

I do want to mention, however, that The Space Elevator Reference also has been blogging on this event and has some pictures that I don’t have.  You can check out that site here.

On their blog, Team Starclimber assesses the current situation at the Space Elevator Games.

Good article from NewScientistSpace.com about the upcoming Space Elevator Games, with quotes from several of the participants.

There are now six teams onsite; LiteWon (the High School team), TurboCrawler (the German Team), Kansas City Space Pirates, Starclimber, and two of the Canadian teams, Snowstar and Punkworks.

Tonight an all-hands meeting was held to talk about various things, most importantly when the qualifiying runs would start.  The teams wanted to start qualifying on Wednesday, so that means Wednesday and Thursday are going to be pretty full.  Perhaps some can be ready by tomorrow and lighten the last-minute load a bit.

Here’s a picture of Ben Shelef running the all-hands meeting.  Click on the thumbnail for a larger version.

Here’s a picture of some of the team members attending the all-hands meeting.  Again, click on the thumbnail for a larger version.

And here’s a picture of Allen Atamer and the Punkworks team Rectenna.  Click on the thumbnail for a larger version and double-click on the arrow next to the speaker icon to hear Allen explain what is in the picture.

Two more pictures from today’s activities at the Fairgrounds.  Click on the picture thumbnail to see a larger version.  Double-click the arrow next to the speaker icon to hear a short audio clip describing what’s going on.

Ben Bakhshi with climber lighting equipment (audio clip narrated by Ben Bakhshi).

Ben operating Forklift carrying Qualifier rig (audio clip narrated by Ken Davidian).

Ben Shelef reports that “things are good” – the rain has stopped.  Two other teams have now arrived onsite; Starclimber and the University of Saskatchewan Space Design Team (USST).

Below are some pictures from today’s activities. Click on the picture thumbnail to see a larger version.  Double-click the arrow next to the Speaker icon to hear a short audio clip describing what’s going on.

Ben Shelef and Dave Carty working on the Ribbon Anchor (audio clip narrated by Ken Davidian).

Brian Turner from the Kansas City Space Pirates working on his climber (audio narrated by his Dad, Dave Turner).

Ben and Dave working on the Ribbon Counterweight (audio clip narrated by Ken Davidian).

Matt Abrams of Team Starclimber (audio clip narrated by Matt Abrams).

This is an article in the local newspaper, the Las Cruces Sun-News, describing the upcoming X Prize Cup.  It’s an overview of all that is going to happen during the Event and does briefly mention the Space Elevator Games.  The reporter misspeaks when he describes a “light-powered tether” and a “cable or a light beam to stretch from the surface of the earth…”, but it’s good to see the mention in the local press nonetheless.

A slow day at the fairgrounds today.  It was rainy all day so not much could be done outside.  Instead, workers concentrated on getting Climbers Row and other indoor facilities into shape.

Still no news on the German team’s TurboCrawler lifter.  It appears that we can’t even find out whether or not their Lifter has been released from Customs or not.  So, we don’t know if it is actually on the last leg of its journey to Las Cruces or still stuck in LA Customs.  Without knowing all the ins and outs of the situation, its hard to make a definitive judgment on why this snafu occurred, but it certainly doesn’t reflect well on our country’s hospitality (or our competence).  If the Lifter isn’t released until Monday, it won’t make it to Las Cruces until the last possible moment, giving the Germans almost no time to get it in the shape they want for the competition.

One other note; the USST team called the Elevator2010 crew today and said that they were crossing Wisconsin on the way to Las Cruces.  This means that they’ve made it past Customs at the US – Canadian border and so, presumably, will arrive on time and intact.

More teams are expected to arrive tomorrow.

The first members of the Elevator2010 Team, Ben Shelef (Spaceward Foundation and Elevator2010 CEO), Dave Carty (Launch Director) and Benjamin Bakhshi (Intern), have, after a long and grueling 20-hour drive from California, arrived onsite with a truck full of equipment.  They report that things at the site “look good”.

The Kansas City Space Pirates have arrived in force.  Team Captain Brian Turner has brought along his younger sister, his mother, his father, his stepfather, the neighbor’s kids, the neighbor’s kid’s mother, etc., 15 in all.  They arrived in a convoy consisting of 3 trucks and 2 trailers and are now working on fine-tuning their Solar Concentrator mirror array, a truly impressive structure.  They have twenty (count them, 20) mirrors; each sporting a dimension of 10 feet by 4 feet.  These will be tuned to produce a spot that is only 3 feet in diameter.  This will be further concentrated on the climber (by a factor of 30) by use of a parabolic trough.  This beam will then be focused on water-cooled, high-power solar cells.  In my opinion, it’s either going to run like a bat out of hell or burn their climber to a crisp 🙂  The photo shows some of the Space Pirate Mirror Arrays – Brian’s mom is in the background and, on the Elevator2010 website, you can see her hauling one of the mirrors around – click on the photo to view a larger version of it.

The German TurboCrawler team is in a bind, however.  Their equipment has failed to clear customs in Los Angeles and, with them needing to set it up ASAP for their Qualification runs, they  have a problem indeed.  Dave Carty from the Elevator2010 team is working with them and with Customs to try and get this sorted out ASAP.  Let’s wish our German friends luck, and, if you know someone at LA Customs, shoot off an email to Ben Shelef (ben AT spaceward.org).

Also, Ben reports that Creative Media Institute, who is documenting the competition, is also onsite and taking it all in.

More tomorrow !

An article from the Ottawa Citizen about the UBC entry for the 2006 Space Elevator Games.

Here’s an article from the Ottawa Citizen discussing the unveiling of Team Snowstar’s entry in this year’s Space Elevator Games.

And here’s another article from CBCNews on the same topic.

It’s starting to happen!  The Elevator2010 team is now on the road to Las Cruces and should be arriving tomorrow, Friday, around noon.  Others are also beginning to converge; the Kansas City Space Pirates are on site and the German Team (TurboCrawler) should also be there by now.

This is so cool – a year’s worth of hard work is beginning to pay off!

The Snowstar team is officially unveiling their lifter for this year’s Space Elevator Games.  The posting discusses the media preview (to be held on October 12th only) and has several photos available for download.

In last year’s competition, Team Snowstar was voted “Most Likely to Win” in this year’s competition and they are sure to make a strong showing this year.

Only 10 more days until the start of the Space Elevator Games.  I’m not associated with any of the Climber or Tether teams, but I can imagine the frantic pace they’re working at now to finalize their entries. 

The Climber competition seems to get most of the attention and there’s no doubt that it will be visually very appealing – watching each team’s entry as it attempts to climb faster and with more weight than their competitors.  But I think the tether competition is going to be very interesting, too.  As Michael Remington of Team Astroaraneae puts it “The tether competition will be head-to-head, while the lifter competition is essentially a time-trial.”  As of now, there are three tether competitors who definitely will be there and two more who may or may not make it.

In the tether competition, two tethers will be mounted on a pulling mechanism.  The pulling mechanism will do its thing while the tethers will be trying to stay in one piece.  The scoring mechanism is essentially a measuring and lockout circuit; it will measure when one of the tethers breaks or stretches more than allowed.  When this happens, a signal will be sent to light up a lamp signifying the winner (the other tether, of course), while the lockout circuit will prevent the winning tether from lighting up the other lamp.  Matches are best two out of three.  Tethers may weigh no more than two grams.

A two-gram “House tether” may be used as one of the competitors in order to create evenly numbered brackets.  This depends on how many competitors show up.  If there are four entries (a distinct possibility), they’ll be divided into two brackets of two each to compete, with the two winners competing against each other for the right to compete for a chance to win the prize.

Once a head-to-head winner has been declared, it will be matched against a three-gram House tether.  If it can beat this tether, then it will be awarded the $200,000.00 Prize money.  As the House tether will weigh 50% more than the competitors tether (three grams vs. two grams), this means that the competitors tether must be 50% stronger than the House tether to win the prize.

The plan is to increase the strength requirements each year (as well as including new requirements when appropriate).  Teams know this; Patrick Littlejohn of Team Snowstar states; “The Snowstar Tether group has been working since January 2006, with an emphasis on extensive testing in order to get the best results out of conventional materials. As the competition progresses through 2010, we hope to incorporate more and more next gen materials into our research and development until one day a working elevator is a reality.  If we win, we will be throwing one hell of a party.”

The official tether competition rules can be found here and this year’s tether entrants can be found here.

The latest from the Spaceward Foundation:

Hello Folks.It took till now, but we’ve finally been given permission to share with you a bit of very good news.NASA’s Centennial Challenges program has increased its commitment to our project, and we now have a total of $4,000,000 in prize purse to disburse over the next 5 years. Yes, that’s right – 10 times the purse we’ve had so far, and a solid commitment through 2010 – two things which will enable us to take our program to the next level.To make the most efficient and prudent use of these funds, we will follow an escalating prize purse strategy – this year’s prize purse will remain $200,000 per each of our two competitions, increasing to $300,000 in 2007, and so on, until we reach $600,000 in 2010. Any unwon prizes (and we do not intend to have a winner every year – that will mean we have made it too easy!) will automatically roll over to the following year.Still, the same catch that applied last year will continue to apply in the years to come – NASA provides us with the prize money, but not with operating funds. In order to bring our operations to a level that matches the prize purse, we need to get commercial sponsorship.We’re therefore asking you, our fan base, to act as our ambassadors. We have started a phenomenon that spawns the nation and the globe. This year’s games are an order of magnitude larger than last year’s, and we have every opportunity to take the 2007 games literally through the roof – but it all depends on how well we perform this year, both technically and commercially.

Ben Shelef of Spaceward and Elevator2010 gives us the latest goings-on for the upcoming Space Elevator Games.  Lots of info here – be sure to read it all. 

Hello folks, and greetings from Elevator Central.

In this issue:

– I&Q week – the place to be.
– Status report.
– Sponsorship opportunities at the games.
– Volunteers for Las Cruces.
– Special thanks.

* I&Q week

Probably the most interesting part of the games this year will not happen during the competition itself, but during the week leading to it.  In this week, we will set up a little “Olympic village”, at the county fairgrounds next to the airport. The purpose of this week is for the teams to assemble and integrate their Space Elevator climbers with our track infrastructure.  Since many of the teams are driving to the competition in RVs, the Space Elevator village will take on a very special character – this is where people from all over the world, who have spent the last year pursuing the same dream, will get a chance to meet for the first time and work together towards making that dream come true. We expect some rivalry, of course, but as one of the team members expressed himself in an email not too long ago, the real competition is with the skeptics out there. Based on our experience with the teams of last year, this will be a very special time.  We want this to become the beginning of a yearly Space Elevator tradition where the Space Elevator community gets together to exchange ideas.

I&Q week (Integration and Qualification) will also determine which teams are good enough to participate in the competition itself.  In order to qualify, the teams have to complete a 30′ ascent at a quarter of the competition minimum speed – slightly less than 1 foot per second.  We wish all 12 teams the best of luck!

* Status report

With 12 climber and 4 tether teams remaining in the running, the competition is promising to be a high-octane event.  We don’t want to spill too many beans, but let’s just say that from what we already know, Ken Davidian from NASA’s Centennial Challenges program had better get these large cardboard checks printed nice and pretty…   and get a pen to sign them!

Climber row, our 2-day Space Elevator museum at the X-Prize Cup, is shaping up beautifully – 200′ long, 30′ wide, and 30′ tall, it will barely be large enough able to contain the climbers, many of which span more than 15′ in diameter. The race track is coming along nicely too, with help from Dave Carty (the same guy that created the Space Elevator multimedia CDs). Roger Gilbertson of the bay area robotics society has agreed to be our MC, and will be narrating the event and interviewing our guests throughout the two competition days.

* Sponsorship opportunities

We have been shy so far about getting sponsorship for the games, frankly, because we did not know how well the competition will shape up. (Rather go unsponsored than not deliver on what we promise – right?) Well – we are now very confident that the competition will be spectacular, so are opening up sponsorship opportunities.  If you or your company like Space Education projects, think the Space Elevator is important, and would like exposure to 25,000 of space-curious spectators and all the who’s who of Space 2.0 – please check out the information at http://www.elevator2010.org/site/sponsorshipXP.html 

Large business or small, private or corporate, we have an option that will work for you. 

* Volunteers for Las Cruces

As mentioned before, we’re looking for on-site help at Las Cruces. An advanced team will arrive at Las Cruces on or about 10/12, and will start working setting up I&Q week at the fairgrounds.  If you are a resident of Las Cruces or El Paso, or if you want to join us for the entire week, please email us.

Our travel schedule is not final yet, but we will be able to pick up people along the Bay area – Los Angeles – Phoenix – Tucson – Las Cruces route.   Please include the date from which you can be available.

* Special thanks

We’d like to thank so much the exceptional people of Las Cruces who are making this possible by going all out and giving us a hand:

– Mayor Bill Mattiace.
– County engineer Jorge Granados.
– Ken Wooten of Wooten construction.
– Phil Cordova of Alliance Riggers & Constructors in El Paso.
– Jon Benson and Mark Medoff of New Mexico State University Creative Media Institute.
– Pat Hynes of New Mexico State University and New Mexico Space Grant Consortium.
– Peter Diamandis and the X-Prize Crew, including Rick Winquest, Mike Kelly, Paul Birkeland, and Nicole Jordan – without whom none of this would have been possible.

* As usual…

Our web site:  http://www.spaceward.org/
Space Elevator competition:  http://www.elevator2010.org/
Our web shop:  http://www.elevator2010.org/site/shop.html
——–

That’s that for this update… 3 Weeks and counting – we hope to see you soon in Las Cruces.

Sincerely,

  The Spaceward Crew

I learned today that Dr. Bradley Edwards is in the final stages of releasing two new books relating to the Space Elevator.  The first, written in conjunction with Phil Ragan, is a book dedicated to explaining the concept of the Space Elevator to the layman.  It’s entitled “Leaving the Planet by Space Elevator“.

The second book is co-edited by Dr. Edwards and David Raitt and is a collection of Sci-Fi stories resulting from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) contest for young authors who wanted to write about the Space Elevator.  It’s entitled “Running the Line“.  I had posted about this contest earlier.  The ESA story about this contest can be found here.

Dr. Edwards is planning on bringing several cases of these books to the upcoming Space Elevator Games so you can get an autographed copy of these books there (which is what I’m planning on doing).  They will also be available via Amazon (and other places, I’m sure) and when they’re out, I’ll post a follow-up.

This is great news – I’m really looking forward to both of these books!

Many weeks ago, the Space Elevator Reference site promised us a new look and contributions by Dr. Bradley Edwards and Dr. Bryan Laubscher.  They’ve now delivered on both.

Bryan Laubscher has delivered his Vision Statement and Dr. Edwards has commented on the upcoming Space Elevator Games.

Space.com has posted an article discussing the upcoming Space Elevator Games (being hosted by X PRIZE Cup).  Dr. Brad Edwards, Ben Shelef of The Spaceward Foundation and Michael Laine of Liftport are quoted.  A link to one of the SE Animations is also provided.

On the LiftPort blog, Kansas City Space Pirates team captain writes that he is looking for volunteers to help out at the upcoming Space Elevator Games.

This is a recent press release from the Spaceward Foundation about the upcoming Space Elevator Games.  It is a summary of what the games are about, why the Space Elevator is important and how they are being held in conjunction with this year’s X PRIZE Cup.  The Press Release is in .pdf format.

This is the latest press release sent out by the Spaceward Foundation concerning the upcoming Space Elevator games.  We learn that 15 teams appear to be competing (down from the original 24).  Twelve of the teams will be competing in the Lifter competition and three in the tether competition (though a fourth may make it here also).  We also get a snapshot of some of the teams.  The Press Release is in .pdf format.