There’s an old joke that goes something like this; “What do you call someone who speaks three languages?  Answer – Trilingual.  What do you call someone who speaks two languages?  Answer – Bilingual.  What do you call someone who speaks one language?  Answer – American.”

I was reminded of this joke by a recent email conversation I had with Elisenda Bou from the Spanish Recens team.  In her emails to me, she apologized for her “English”.  I pointed out to her that “her English” was good enough to allow us to converse and was, in any event, much better than “my Spanish.”

As followers of this year’s Space Elevator games know, Recens supposedly had their Climber “lost” by UPS somewhere between the shipping point in Spain and the receiving point in Las Cruces, New Mexico (the particular story I heard was that it was “lost in Kentucky”).  I had written earlier that I was very upset with UPS for losing this Climber – how badly does this reflect on American competence when one of our corporations does something like this?  As with many stories like this, however, it is not always as it first appears.  It seems the problems started in Europe when, upon the advice of their Cargo Agent, Recens declared the value of their shipment to be no more than $100.00 (to try and bypass any customs issues).  The package was opened in Germany and was worth obviously more than that and this is where the trouble began.  According to Elisenda, this is where their Climber is now.  I wonder how the story of “lost in Kentucky” got started?  Or, maybe it made it that far and then got shipped back to Germany?  Anyway, as I have unwittingly passed along something (UPS lost the Climber in Kentucky) that now appears to be untrue, I wanted to post the facts as I now understand them.

In any event, Recens seems to have taken their setback very graciously and worked with USST and other teams (see Matt Abrams posting over at the Starclimber blog) in order to be a positive force at the just-concluded Space Elevator games.  Elisenda did confirm that they temporarily purchased the USST climber so that they could share the resource they did have at the Games, their spotlights.

Elisenda also emailed me some pictures of their Climber, shown below.  Recens prime sponsor was a museum in Spain and so their Climber, when it’s returned to them (not the USST Climber) is going to be shown at this museum, first at their Madrid location and then at their Barcelona location.

Click on the picture thumbnails to view a larger version.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ben Shelef explaining the rules before competition began.

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

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

Michael Remington of Team Astroaraneae.  Congratulations again !!

No joy for the German team either.  They got onto the tether in good order and, when light was applied, seemed to move up a few feet pretty quickly.  But then they had controller problems and had to remove their climber from the tether.  Hopefully they’ll try it again later on.

Pictures of the attempt below.  As always, click on the thumbnails for a larger version.

Making adjustments on the tether.

Turbo Crawler, illuminated with the 18,000 watt spotlight.

Lights for TurboCrawler.  The big one is 18,000 watts and the smaller is 12,000 watts.

LiteWon up next.

UBC-Snowstar failed in it’s attempt to climb the tether.  They got on the tether in good order.  When they first loosed the brake and attempted to climb, you could see the wheels on the climber turn, but it didn’t move.  They clamped it back to the ribbon and made an adjustment to tighten the grip.  When they tried it again, it did go up a few feet, but you could hear the wheels/gears slipping.  So, they’re done, at least for now.

Below are some pictures from the UBC-Snowstar attempt.  Click on the thumbnails for a larger version.

Getting on the tether.

Steve Jones tightening the grip.

Snowstar illuminated with the spotlights.

TurboCrawler is up next.

Dawn is breaking here – dawn in the desert is truly beautiful.  I spent 8 years living and working in Saudi Arabia and one of my favorite things there was to go camping in the desert and wake up to to the sunrises.  But it’s still bloody cold.

New development; As I wrote last night, Centaurus Aerospace showed up at the last minute and were hoping to compete.  However, their microwave source is not working so they’ve teamed up with Punkworks, the other microwave team.  Kevin Estrabillo from Punkworks tells me that the new combined team, known as “Punktaurus” will split the prize money 50-50 with Centaurus Aerospace if they win.

Several teams are here already and there is some jockeying going on as to who will go first, how much time they’ll be allowed on the tether, etc.

Bryan Laubscher (back to the camera), Ben Shelef (in the truck) and Dr. Bradley Edwards getting things ready for this morning’s competition.

MClimber became the first team to attempt a run today, and they succeeded in making it all the way to the top of the 200 foot-tall tether.  It took them 6 minutes and 40 seconds to complete the run, and the rules state that you have to do it in one minute or less.  So, the success is partial – they got to the top, but not in the required time (and thus are not eligible for the prize with this run).  But it’s incredible that they made it all.  The tether was twisting tremendously and the solar array was continuously in and out of the best optical position.  They are now going over their “lessons learned” and I expect them to make another attempt tomorrow.

Congratulations to the University of Michigan’s team; Julie Bellerose, Andrew Lyjak, Joel Schweitzer and Kwan Chong Tan – the first team, ever, to make it to the top of a 200 foot tether ! (As always, click on the thumbnails for a larger version of the picture).

MClimber on the tether – last minute adjustments being made.

On the way up…

You can see the Climber oscillating on the ribbon, round and round and up and down (on each side).

The successful team; from left-to-right, Joel Schweitzer, Julie Bellerose, Kwan Chong Tan and Andrew Lyjak.

Next up (we hope) are the Kansas City Space Pirates…

(Note: My thanks to Dustin Sensiba, from Cruces.US News for the first three pictures – due to a technical glitch, I wasn’t able to take any of this run.  Thanks, Dustin).

As of right now, there are still only six teams that have qualified to compete in the 2006 Space Elevator Games Climber Competition.  They are the Kansas City Space Pirates, TurboCrawler, LiteWon, UBC-Snowstar, MClimber (from University of Michigan) and USST.  That’s a pretty broad mix.  The KC Space Pirates are a family affair, TurboCrawler is from a German University, LiteWon is from an American High School, UBC-Snowstar and USST are from Canadian Universities and Climber 1 is from an American University.  No company sponsored qualifiers, though.

As for the other six entrants, here is their status;

Recens – From Spain.  I have my information second-hand, but from what I understand, their Climber was lost (not delivered to the wrong address, but LOST) by UPS, somewhere in Kentucky.  Even if it shows up tomorrow, there is almost no chance they can compete.  If the information about their missing equipment is true, they were well and truly screwed – what a shame.

SpaceMiners – They burned out 4 cells on their photocell array on a qualification attempt and are still hopeful of qualifying tomorrow.

StarClimber – They suffered a mechanical problem while on the ribbon, trying to qualify.  While Matt is working on fixing it, he’s not hopeful.  It doesn’t look good for them, but they’re not totally dead yet.

Punkworks – They still think they have a shot at it.  They were doing some ribbon testing tonight and hope to qualify tommorrow.

Beamer (the Fischer team) – Another tragedy.  When their Climber was being weighed in, it somehow got disconnected from the scale and crashed to the ground.  The lens fractured and may not be usable.

Centaurus Aerospace – As far as I know, no one’s heard from them – I guess they’re no shows.

So that’s where we are.  At least six teams will be competing and there’s a chance that up to 3 more may make it (though I’d give odds on only 1 or 2 of them).

Below are some more pictures from today.  Click on the thumbnails for a larger version.

Dr. Bradley Edwards arrives.  Here he is with Spaceward CEO Ben Shelef – both getting their hands dirty.

Ben Shelef directing an all-hands meeting tonight, going over the logistics for competing tomorrow.  Evidently, there has been some sort of snafu in getting credentials issued and it promises to be a merry mess getting in, in the morning !

Meet Marty – Marty is our version of the “Cable Guy” – he’s the one who, today anyway, runs the crane handling the qualifying tether.  Here he is, sitting in the crane’s cab.