Yes the Games are over and yes I’m sure that 99% of the readers here already know the results.  But I did a search on the various articles written in a “wrap-up mode” and am posting some of them here.  All of them (IMHO) contain some info I didn’t know or were , in other ways interesting…

This article is from the Punkworks blog and talked about getting ready for the competition and the accident which occurred on route to the games (talked about in more detail here and here).

This article is also from the Punkworks blog and is most unhappy in its tone.  They state definitively that they are “…definitely not coming back to Spaceward’s games ever again.”  This is unfortunate, but they really weren’t ready to go, also mentioned in this same posting; “We were basically integrating on the launch platform.”  It’ s hard to win when you do that…  Punkworks had teamed up with the McGill Team to try and make a go of it.

The Davis County Clipper (a local publication) had at least two articles about the Games (here and here).  The second article contained a bit of information I hadn’t known until reading this; “The weather played a significant part in the dismal results. “They were considering packing up and moving to Ames Air Force Base in California,” said Curtis Koch of the Davis County Events Center. Instead, they agreed to stay when the fee for using the event center was dropped, acknowledging that the expected 20,000 anticipated attendance did not materialize. The final rental amount for the event center space was $5,300.”  I’ll have to ask Ben if this is true 🙂

One more local article from the Deseret Morning News.

Ben Shelef from Spaceward was interviewed on Planetary Radio from the Planetary Society prior to the Games.

One of the Journalist/Bloggers I met this year was David Shiga from New Scientist.  He was a very pleasant guy, was easy to work with, and had several postings about the Games, here, here, here. and here.

Wired Science has their take here.

CNETNews.com had a couple of articles, here and here.

One of several local (Canadian) articles lamenting how USST fell just short of winning the prize…

When LaserMotive attempted to qualify on the night of the 18th, they invited me out onto the Launch pad to view and video tape the proceedings.  When all was said and done, however, I couldn’t find the video I had taken of the proceedings.  After some hunting around, I concluded that I had just screwed up somehow and lost the video or had mistakenly hit the “off” switch or something…  However, a couple of days ago, I finished compiling a catalog of all the videos I had taken and, lo and behold, there it was – I had misfiled it into the wrong date subdirectory in my video collection of the Games.

As you all know, two laser-powered teams entered the Games this year, USST and LaserMotive.  The difference between the way the two set up was quite stark.  Bryan Laubscher, safety officer for the Games and all-around Space Elevator guy, put it very well; “USST brought a system.  LaserMotive brought a Lab.”  I’m not knocking or denigrating LaserMotive or their attempt in any way, but they had not spent enough time on the setup and takedown preparation that USST (and others) had done and, in the end, it contributed greatly to their failure to qualify for the prize.

The video I took of their attempt follows.  It shows the scene, at night, inside the LaserMotive “Lab” as they attempted to qualify.  For the 30 or so minutes prior to this, LaserMotive had been setting up their system.  When Jordin Kare, the LaserMotive Laser expert spoke the words “Lasers coming on”, I started taking the video.

There was a “cracking sound” and a cloud of smoke and, well, you can see the rest.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AphwMxApRGQ[/youtube]

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You can clearly see the laser beams as they are projected onto the mirror.

I don’t mind admitting that the smoke and the “cracking” sound scared the crap out of me.  It brought back a very unpleasant memory.  In a previous job, I was in charge of all Software Development at a company called InFlight Phone Corporation.  Saudia Airlines, the national airlines of Saudi Arabia, was a potential client of ours.  I had flown over there, with a couple of other people from our company, to do some flight testing and certification of our equipment on a 747.  There were two groups of us doing this.  This first was Honeywell and the Ball Antenna Group, testing and certifying a satellite antenna.  All went well for them.  The 747 returned to Jeddah airport, did a “touch-and-go” (if you haven’t experienced one of these in a 747, well, there are no words to describe it) and then climbed to 20,000 feet to test our equipment.  When they turned it on, I heard a “cracking noise” and blue smoke quickly filled the cabin.  This is NOT what you want to see in an airplane flying at 20,000 feet.  The pilots got the plane back to the airport and landed as quickly as possible.  Some engineers were waiting and immediately boarded the plane.  After a quick look in the cockpit, they concluded that the previous maintenance crew had left a wire hanging across the main and an auxiliary power bus.  This auxiliary power bus was what powered our equipment.  When they turned it on, it shorted out, causing the noise and smoke.  I knew enough Arabic to know most of the obscenities that the pilot and co-pilot were screaming at the maintenance crew as they left the aircraft.

One more LaserMotive video – this was taken while they were doing an alignment check of their lasers.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJhWvt8Tlx0[/youtube]

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The first of the two pictures is of part of their system, indoors, while being worked on.  The second is of the Laser Safety goggles that LaserMotive gave me to wear while recording their work.  I put a 3×5 card behind the lens so that you can clearly see the “spec’s specs” 🙂

Their laser ran a 808 nanometers – you can see that the goggles are rated from between 804 and 830 nanometers and thus appropriate for their system.

As always, click on the thumbnail for a larger version of the pictures.

As most of my readers know, Ken Davidian is NASA’s program manager for the Centennial Challenges.  Without Ken and NASA and the $$$ Prize Money they provide there would be no Space Elevator Games, so we owe them (and the Spaceward Foundation) a HUGE vote of thanks.  THANKS EVERYONE!!

Ken has graciously agreed to my request for some “final thoughts’ on the games:

Dear Space Elevator Blog Reader,
 
It’s been a couple weeks since the conclusion of the 2007 Spaceward Games and I wanted to provide the NASA Centennial Challenges perspective of the event. Because we’re coming up on the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving, please indulge me as I get in the “holiday” mood…
 
First, I’d like to thank Ted Semon for hosting this blog. The visibility he has given to this technology and the competition events has provided a great service to the readers as well as to the Spaceward Foundation and to NASA as well. Thanks, Ted!
 
I’d also like to thank the Spaceward Foundation from the first-time volunteers, to the “super” volunteers, to the core staff, and all the way up to Ben and Meekk Shelef, the driving forces behind the organization. As you probably know, Spaceward is administering and executing the Beam Power and Tether Challenges at no cost to NASA Centennial Challenges. For their service to NASA and to the U.S. taxpayer, I would like to thank Spaceward more than these words can possibly convey.
 
The heart of the competitions, of course, are the teams and their supporters, both volunteer and sponsors. In these competitions, you are the “talent” that are performing a great service for the U.S. space program. Your work (hokey as it may sound 50 years on) is really “for the benefit of all mankind.” You are pushing the envelope of what is currently achievable, doing it on your terms and with your own resources. Again, I can’t possible convey how important your sacrifice is, but I’m sure you are fully aware of how important it is. Please know that your efforts are visible and appreciated at all levels of the NASA organization.
 
Of course, I can’t forget to thank all our friends at the Davis County Fairpark in Farmington, Utah. It is with their enthusiastic support that Spaceward was able conduct the 2007 Spaceward Games.
 
Finally, I’d like to acknowledge and express my appreciation for all the administrative support I’ve received from my NASA colleagues, both at HQ as well as at the centers, that help make Centennial Challenges a reality in its present form.
 
Now I want to say a few words about the 2007 event that was held last month. Although I was made a liar of, once again (I was *sure* there would have been a winner in the Beam Power Challenge this year!) it is exciting to see the maturity of the teams, technologies, and the Beam Power community in general. There were operational challenges that were successfully overcome to allow the complete running of the competition. Although there was some debate about whether extending the competition an extra day was the right choice, I think it was the correct decision and is supported by the philosophy that these competitions are intended to get the best performance from all the qualified teams on an equitable basis. We ran into similar “discussions” at subsequent competition events this year and the philosophy is proving to be sound.
 
The Tether Challenge also provided an “unexpected ending” to a story I was *sure* I knew the ending to. Given the statements from DeltaX, the commitment of the Space Spiders (aka AstroArachnaeaeaeaeaeaeaea, :-P), *AND* the $900K purse, I think next year will *definitely* prove to be an exciting competition! I’m really looking forward to it!
 
In summary, I think that although I could pick apart nits about any number of issues in all sorts of areas, I think the overall competition was a great success and I am encouraged by the discussions I’ve already been hearing about for the 2008 competition…
 
Keep up the great work, and I look forward to seeing you next year!
 
Sincerely,
 
Ken Davidian
 
Program Manager, Centennial Challenges
NASA HQ

Thank you Ken, for the kind words about my blog – they are truly appreciated.

Ad Astra!

On the 20th of October, the same day the Light Racers and Tether competitions were held, the Space Elevator Games were visited by a dragonfly.  Jacob Shelef found the dragonfly, cold and wet and trying to get warm and dry, and brought it to the attention of his mother, Susan.  The Dragonfly certainly seemed to take a liking to her, riding her arm, face, hair, etc. for several hours before she finally put it down in a safe place.

I took a couple of videos of her and Jacob and the dragonfly.  According to Wikipedia, dragonflies have good reputations and bad reputations, depending on the culture you are referring to.  I’ve always liked them – they are beautiful creatures.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q93_aQfVIQI[/youtube]

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWIdbR4co38[/youtube]

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(As always, click on the picture thumbnail for a larger version)

Brian Turner and the Kansas City Space Pirates today issued this Press Release:

Kansas City Team Misses Half Million Dollar NASA Prize by 25 Seconds.

The Kansas City Space Pirates just missed winning $500,000 from NASA in the Spaceward Games 2007. They needed to make a robot called a climber that could drag race straight up 100 Meters in 50 seconds. Oh, and it could not have any batteries or fuel. All of it’s power had to come from the ground and be “Beamed” up. The competition encourages development of wireless power transmission technologies for future applications like space elevators and moon mining. The competition also proved too much for the other 22 entrants from 5 countries and some of the most prestigious universities in the world.

The $500,000 will roll over to next year making the 2008 prize money $900,000.

This marks the second year for the KC Space Pirates. Last year they startled everyone with the bold use of common mirrors to concentrate sunshine, using ancient methods to tackle modern problems. That earned them the “Most Innovative Climber” award. This year they again shocked everyone with the fastest peak speed ever seen in competition of nearly 8-mph. A number of factors combined to prevent them from maintaining that speed to the top of the competition ribbon, ranging from weather, and electronics to plain bad luck. They finished second overall behind a team from the University of Saskatchewan that managed a better average speed using high power invisible lasers. Next year the goal will be raised higher and faster than this year. And the KC Space Pirates have already started the fund raising process to compete in this and future technical competitions.

Their captain Brian Turner said “We may not have won this year, but I hope we made Kansas City proud.”

For more information
http://www.kcspacepirates.com
http://www.elevator2010.org http://centennialchallenges.nasa.gov/

Looks like Brian and company are already planning to come back next year – good news indeed.

I received the following “post-Games thoughts”, as well as the three photos in this post, from Akira Tsuchida, captain of Team E-T-C, Earth-Track-Controllers.  In addition to building a prototype of a Space Elevator which they entered in this year’s Games, they also have a pretty cool day job, tracking the International Space Station (ISS).  I imagine with the problems on board the ISS recently (chronicled here), things have been a bit hectic with their employment lately too.  The topmost photo is an E-T-C Team photo.  The one in the middle is a cool night shot of the spotlights they used to power their climber.  And the photo on the bottom is a very good image of their illuminated climber at night as it attempted to climb.

“Subject: E-T-C recovered and started investigation why our Climber did not climb
 
We drove back to Houston for 3 days to return Xenon light, then some members flew back to Japan on last weekend.  It took long time to recover and finally E-T-C had a first meeting on Nov 3 after finish competition this year.  We re-assembled our climber again to investigate real reason what is happening in SLC.  As all participants knows, E-T-C climber could not climb at all.

Some people mentioned, even team member,E-T-C Climber seems too heavy.  But I still do not think it is TOO heavy.  Of course, comparing with other 7 team which participated games in Salt Lake City. Probably our wheel and mechanism is the heaviest.
 
E-T-C designed this climber as our first challenge to win this competition using the following concept.
(1) Try to have highest efficiency motor and energy transformation mechanism
     (Use high performance motor and high efficiency gear)
(2) Minimize weight of solar panels (modules)
     (Laminated thin mono crystal silicon PV array helped a lot to minimize support structure and damage from wind.)
(3) Low cost (because no sponsor)
 
Although we wanted to use laser, microwave or other advanced technology to this competition, but we decided use white light because we have limited human resources and money.  So we could focus to develop climber for this year.
 
According to our calculation and ground test (not using ribbon but using actual xenon light and solar panels, we proved that we could get enough power to climb at the starting point. (ex. 10m)
 
That means something happening in Electric circuit between solar panels and electronics/motor driver circuits.  Still we need to study and experiment more to know this cause.
 
Anyway, we are proud to compete with other experienced teams.  And we hopefully can compete at next years game in US again.
 
To do that, we need to have good sponsor to understand about SE.
 
Our big concern about all Climber teams is for three years, no team won at all.  If continuously criteria is becoming difficult, number of team will be decreased and can not do good competition.
 
So E-T-C’s idea as a member of Japan Space Elevator Association (JSEA) is as follows. 
(1) Divide roles or goals to two or three by Spaceward, Euro Spaceward amd also JSEA. 
(2) Each fundation will focus to hold competition for individual part od Space Elevator system. 
    Ex: US Spaceward focus to Power beam challenge
         Japanese foundation (JSEA) focus to climber, etc…
(3) And at each competition’s winnner’s system can be used at other competition. 
     Ex. If USST won power beam challenge, their system can be used at Japanese Climber challenge, etc.
 
Of course, JSEA needs to talk Japanese government or big company like Toyota, Honda, in Japan to have prize money for competition in Japan.  But it maybe good idea.  I felt not only our team but also other teams are almost ‘Broke’.  And it makes more difficult to keep each team’s physical strength and motivation.  This kind of effort should be done by European and Japanese (or Asian) group too.
 
I also have a strong confidence that one of us (all teams) can prove that ‘Our Generation Will Go To Space’!!.

Do not give up and work together,

Akira Tsuchida
Team Lead, Earth-Track-Controllers
e-t-c(at)earth-track-controllers.com”

(As always, click on the photo thumbnails for a larger version of the picture)

There were several children at the Spaceward Games this year and I’m finally getting around to posting some pictures and videos that I have taken of them.  I’ve already posted the video of Jeffrey Leafblad entertaining us with his juggling here.

Here are two extremely cute little girls we were fortunate enough to have at the Games.

The first is Corin Turner, age 7, daughter of Brian Turner (captain of the Kansas City Space Pirates) and his wife Cindy.  She is standing in front of one of the posters in Building 1 (the office building).  Look at that smile!  She is wearing several of the very popular Kansas City Space Pirates tattoos – Brian tells me she didn’t take them off for a week!

And the second is Dorothy Nugent, age 3&1/2, daughter of Tom Nugent Jr. (Project manager of the LaserMotive team and well known to everyone from his LiftPort days) and his wife Elizabeth.  Dorothy is the source of the famous line; “Daddy, I have to make Poopies.” chronicled here.

I think they’re both going to be heart-breakers when they get older 🙂

(As always, click on the thumbnails for a larger version of the picture)

As you all know, there were a total of eight teams which competed in this year’s Climber /Power-Beaming competition.  Two other teams, however, almost made it and they brought their climbers to display to the crowds and to the other competitors.

One was from Arthur Shay’s Team Zero-G.  This is a Stirling-engine powered climber, the third attempt, I think, at doing such an entry at the Games.  None of them have been able to compete, however, so either the technology is flawed or it just hasn’t been executed as well (or as soon) as it should.  Incidentally, Arthur was/is trying to make this climber an open / cooperative effort (ala Michael Laine and Liftport).  If you’re interested in participating with this team at next year’s Games, give Arthur a shout at zero.g.tec [AT] gmail [DOT] com – he’d love to hear from you.

The other was Michael Harvey’s entry; the Andromeda Connection.  This device was to be powered by MOLPSol, their “Solar Laser”.  From his website: “A solar laser. Of course any device producing white light cannot be considered a laser in the strictest sense of the word, but, it’s similar to a laser in that it produces a collimated beam of light with a relatively narrow bandwidth.”  It would have been very interesting to see this Climber in action.  And, I’m not trying to be snarky or anything, but this Climber looks for all the world like something out of “Lost in Space”. 🙂

I was able to talk with both competitors briefly, certainly not as much as I would have liked to – but other events / blogging kept me pretty busy.  Let’s hope that we see both of these competitors at next year’s Games.  The Prize Money is now a cool $900,000 – enough to get anyone’s pecuniary juices flowing, for sure.

Click on the thumbnails for larger versions of the Climbers.