LASER ’10

On March 21st, the LASER (Lego Bricks Activity and Space Elevator Race) competition was held in Tokyo, Japan.  This event, organized and sponsored by the Japan Space Elevator Association (JSEA), is an event that allows school children the opportunity to build and race Climbers, constructed entirely out of Legos.  This is the third time this event has been held and this year was named LASER ’10.

Mr. Hideyuki Natsume, the Director of this event, sent me the following details about the competition:

====================

Regulation of the competition is:

  1. Climb vertical track of 25mm width, 7m high polyester-tether.
  2. The Climber must be made of LEGO bricks.
  3. The Climber must have a ‘residential module’ as would the future Space Elevator!
  4. Award categories were speed, power(payload) and design of the Climber.

The winner of the competition were students from an elementary school!  It was very exciting event not only for the participants, but also the audience.

Overall Awards: (The total score of each category determines the award)

  • 1st Place – Falcon Robots: Team Falcon Robots (elementary school students)
  • 2nd Place – Falcons: Team Falcons (elementary school students)

Individual Category Awards:

  • Speed Award: (For the fastest time to climb.(7m/14.2sec) – Falcon Robots: Team Falcon Robots (elementary school students)
  • Power Award: (For the best efficiency(payload)) – Team Bahamut: Nihon Univ. Buzan Junior High School
  • Mechanical Design Award: (For the best mechanism) – Team Snake: Nihon Univ. Buzan Junior High School
  • SE Design Award: (For the best design for Space Elevator) – COSMIC BOX: Komazawa Gakuen Girl’s Junior High School

Special Awards

  • Nihon University Award: (For the best presentation) – Eritakenchan: Yokohama city Nara Junior High School
  • Team Play Award: (For the best team-work) – SKY-T: Komazawa Gakuen Girl’s Junior High School

We are scheduled for the next competitions this Autumn.  See you next LASER!

(About LASER and previous competition) LASER’09

For additional details, please contact us.
Team LASER ( info [at] jsea.jp )

LEGO is a trademark of ©The LEGO Group.

==========

In addition to sending me details about the competition, Natsume-san also sent me some photos which I’m including in this post.

This is the venue where the competition was held at.  It is the Komazawa Gakuen Girl’s Junior/Senior High School Memorial Auditorium Inagi-city Tokyo, Japan.
This is a closeup of the climbing mechanism for the entrant that won the “Fastest Climber” Award – Falcon Robots: Team Falcon Robots
And here is a closeup of the winning “Residential Module”, entered by COSMIC BOX: Komazawa Gakuen Girl’s Junior High School.
This photo shows the teams working with their ‘racetracks’ suspended from the auditorium ceiling.  The tethers were 7 meters high and 25 mm wide – think automobile ‘seatbelt’…
And this photo shows the competitors, guests and staff of LASER ’10.  What a great photo!

.
(You can view larger versions of all of these photo thumbnails simply by clicking on them.)

Thank you again, Natsume-san, for sending me all of this information and congratulations to JSEA and all the contestants!

One thought on “LASER ’10

Comments are closed.