{"id":1426,"date":"2010-10-20T21:13:54","date_gmt":"2010-10-21T03:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/?p=1426"},"modified":"2010-10-20T21:13:54","modified_gmt":"2010-10-21T03:13:54","slug":"the-kansas-city-space-pirates-throw-in-the-towel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/?p=1426","title":{"rendered":"The Kansas City Space Pirates throw in the towel…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I received the following email from Brian Turner, captain of the Kansas City Space Pirates<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Well, At some point you have to give up and move on. The ideal point for this passed some time ago. Perhaps years ago. \ud83d\ude09<\/em><\/p>\n

The risk\/reward ratio is just no longer where it needs to be to make the power beaming competition worth our efforts. Without the TRUMPF 8 kw laser we have slim to no chance of beating LaserMotive. Lasers cost about $75,000 per kw. That makes the prize $333,000 and it will cost us $200,000 to make a credible run at that. I have said before that between 4 and 5\u00a0 to 1 was the ratio that would get us to go for a competition. We have enough into the power beaming competition that I would be willing to lower that to as low as 2.5 to 1. We just are not close.<\/em><\/p>\n

But just because we lost does not mean we’re not pirates! What do pirates do when they get beat? Have a party. It’s just my way of saying thank you to all the people that have helped along the way. Oh, and there is that whole closure thing. We’ll have a bawl… er… I mean ball. It may turn into a roast Brian evening but that’s OK with me.<\/em><\/p>\n

So I am working up the invitation list now. If you think you should be on that list, drop me a line.<\/em><\/p>\n

A quick recap of what we accomplished.<\/em><\/p>\n

Three times over 5 years we turned in the second most exciting performance in a international high stakes NASA technical competition. We missed out on millions in prize money by slim margins and provided innovative solutions that the industry had never seen before. All of this on a budget that was from 1\/2 to 1\/4 that of the teams that managed to beat us.\u00a0 We raised over a quarter million dollars in sponsorship and funding.\u00a0 And put in over 4,000 hours of time.\u00a0 It was quite a ride!<\/em><\/p>\n

And because I don’t have a good way to invite companies to the ball I want to say thanks to them once again here.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thor Labs
\nNational Instruments
\nTRUMPF
\nBarr Associates
\nAsphericon
\nWattmaster
\nBurns McDonnell
\nOptica Software
\nAndyMark
\nCitizens Bank & Trust
\nPalinurus Books
\nDiversity Model Aircraft<\/em><\/p>\n

I also want to thank Tom and LaserMotive for being great competitors and the consolation prize arrangement that has let me keep my house.<\/em><\/p>\n

Brian Turner
\nCaptain
\nKC Space Pirates<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, what can one say about the Kansas City Space Pirates?\u00a0 I think they were everyone’s favorite competitor.\u00a0 I think even the other teams wished that if they themselves didn’t win the prize money, they hoped that KCSP would be the ones to do so.\u00a0 Their work was so innovative and every member of that team was just a joy to be around.\u00a0 They certainly demonstrated the technical capability to win the prize, but they were always thwarted by the unexpected event.<\/p>\n

Their willingness to help everyone, their continued good humor in the face of adversity and, above all, their sense of fair play is going to be greatly missed.\u00a0 I salute them, one and all…<\/p>\n

And Brian’s appearance on the Conan O’Brien show is a highlight that will live on in Space Elevator Lore.\u00a0 We at ISEC<\/a> are collecting some items we’ll want to broadcast during the maiden run of the first Space Elevator and this Conan O’Brien show clip will certainly be one of them.<\/p>\n

So, major bummer.\u00a0 I have had several conversations with Ben Shelef about the future of the Climber \/ Power-Beaming competition and, while it is much too early for me to spill any of the beans, I can safely say that some significant changes in the structure of the Games appear to be in the cards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I received the following email from Brian Turner, captain of the Kansas City Space Pirates: Well, At some point you have to give up and move on. The ideal point for this passed some time ago. Perhaps years ago. \ud83d\ude09 The risk\/reward ratio is just no longer where it needs to be to make the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-announcements","category-spaceelevatorcompetitions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spaceelevatorblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}