A team of inventors from Seattle has won $900, 000 in a competition organized by the National Aeronautic and Space Agency, which aimed to develop the very first “space elevator.”
Called the LaserMotive LLC machine, the robotic elevator was able to complete one of its climbs in a 2, 950 ft. cable in less than four minutes (3 mins 48 sec). The cable was dangling from a helicopter and was extremely difficult to climb, specially with the wind.
But the Seattle team was able to make the climb fast enough for the second place win. The group designed the robot to receive power from a ground-based laser pointed to its photo voltaic cells that converted the laser beam light into electricity.
The contest got the idea from a science fiction novel in the 1960’s. The theory was later popularized by Arthur Clarke in his 1979 novel called, the Fountains of Paradise.
The main point of having the space elevator is a way to reach space without the risk and high-financing needed unlike the rockets being used to day.
With thousands of miles of cables from space stations to earth, the electric powered elevators can bring passengers up and down the geo-synchronous orbit, which is the spot where satellites orbiting in a fix position around the earth.
NASA program manager for Centennial Challenges Andy Petro has presented the check to the Laser Motive during a ceremony at the Dryden Flight Research Facility on Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert.
Petro said that the group could even claim as much as $2 million if they can prove that its space elevator can climb faster than its record. The company made both climbs at two speed levels.
Meanwhile, the two competing teams that joined the contest were not able to finish both climbs.
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