On the LaserMotive Blog, mention is made of a recent article in the SunBreak, a local Seattle newspaper (team LaserMotive is based in Seattle).

It’s a very interesting article and well worth the read.  LaserMotive’s Jordin Kare talks about power-beaming and why that interests LaserMotive (as opposed to a Space Elevator, which they are not interested in).

Jordin is quoted:

“Some of the people who are competing are very much believers in the space elevator–Tom Nugent and I, who started the LaserMotive team, are pretty skeptical,” admitted Kare. “It’s one of these things where it’s a lovely idea, and it may be physically possible–which I wouldn’t have said a decade ago–but it’s a very long jump drawing pretty pictures and writing basic equations to being able to build something a hundred-and-some-odd-thousand kilometers long.”

He’s absolutely correct, of course – right now a Space Elevator IS not much more than ‘pretty pictures’.  As the President of ISEC, it’s my job to change that ‘equation’…

It’s ironic – the team that really is not a fan of the idea of Space Elevator is the team that won the recent Space Elevator Games.  On one of the many news-clips that resulted from the Games, a reporter asked why LaserMotive bothered to compete in the Games if they don’t believe in the concept.  The reply was that they wanted to demonstrate their prowess in power-beaming.  I don’t think the $900,000 hurt anything either…

(Picture of Jordin from here – click on it to see a full-size version)