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]