My husband is managing a team (LaserMotive) in the Space Elevator Games this week. They must send a climber 1000 m up a steel cable, straight up, powered from the ground, at at least 2 m/s. (Better prizes are available if they beat 5 m/s.) The cable hangs off a hovering helicopter.
If someone manages a 5 m/s climb, the whole $2M purse will be awarded.
Please keep your fingers crossed for us, preferably that they win, but even more that someone wins so the competition will be over and I can get my husband back!
Fortunately for the organizers, none of the microwave teams made it to the final competition. The helicopter is flying blacked out to minimize any problems from the lasers (I think there is also some kind of shield, but I’m not sure). They also have to turn the lasers off from time to time to avoid lighting up any satellites - they have their “safe” windows scheduled.
Currently doing a battery-powered test of the USST climber. I think the Kansas City Space Pirate’s competition climb is supposed to be after this.
LaserMotive completed two climbs at about 3.75 m/s, making them eligible for the $900,000 prize (may be shared if another team also beats 2 m/s in a later attempt). The Kansas City Space Pirates got their climber moving, but too slow to qualify for prizes. USST will try at 7 AM PST tomorrow.
I think this means we can afford to remodel our bathroom.
I can’t even pretend to understand what you’re referring to with lasers and microwaves.
I just thought of “space elevator games” as being things like pressing all the buttons when you get off at the moon, leaving some poor sap on a floor by floor tour of the galaxy.
USST and the Kansas City Space Pirates both failed to complete a climb. LaserMotive completed a climb at the 2 m/s level, earning them the entire $900,000 prize.
WOW, WOW, WOW. Congratulations. There is so much to learn from these emerging technologies. You must be very proud
On a side note. How do you get a helo to hover in a stable position while trailing a 1000 meter cable to the ground. Must have been an elastic connection at some point?
More info than you probably needed
The pilot had a fancy GPS system that was built for him to help him maintain position precisely, too. This particular pilot has been pulling cable for the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge, so he was a great choice for the games. He did an incredibly professional job.
They’re both ways to transfer power through the air without wires. Microwave Power Transmission can be tightly focused and send a powerful signal, which an antenna will then convert into an electric current to power a small motor in the climber. A similar thing can be done with lasers, except instead of a metal antenna which receives the signal, you shoot the laser at a solar cell, which converts the light into electricity.
In both cases the goal is to transmit the power from a base station, which can generate lots of power, to a climber which can be much smaller and lighter because it doesn’t have to carry fuel or a power supply.
The reason ENugent was happy the microwave teams didn’t make it is because since the climber will be coming right up to where the helicopter is, a tightly focused beam of microwave energy will be essentially aimed at the helicopter. If their aim is a little bit off and they don’t hit the receiving area of the climber(and I assume it has a surrounding shield and/or parabolic reflector) then the helicopter will be hit by a beam of microwave radiation(just like food in your microwave).
It’s actually probably safe because microwave shielding is well known and widely used technology. Take a look at your microwave oven someday. Check the screen in front of the window. That effectively filters out something like 99.9% of all microwave energy, and something like that could shield the helicopter.
ENugent, your husband(and the other people doing this) are my new heroes. I think the human race NEEDS a space elevator and the climbers will be a key part of how to do that. Kudos, and congrats on the prize!
I am so excited for you! I love the space elevator. I also like these types of competitions and think they can spur advances in technology. Especially “power beaming” - I don’t know what it will be used for, but I am sure it will come in handy for something in the future.
Btw, I was reading about your team on CNN this morning, so I knew the outcome when I moused over the thread and saw “LaserMotive”.
Actually, there was no shielding on the climbers or the helicopter. Instead, the lasers were offset from the base of the climb, so that even at the top, they were shooting at an angle to miss the helicopter. But I suspect that they would have been unwilling to rely on this with microwaves, and it would be tougher to shield the helicopter.
Thank you! The publicity has been a little unnerving, to tell you the truth. My husband is being interviewed on a South African radio station in half an hour, and he was quoted in the New York Times this weekend.
The funny thing is that their team doesn’t believe that an elevator will be built, certainly not in our lifetimes. But the power beaming is independently valuable, right now, and they want to turn that into a business. The space elevator part of it is secondary. (My husband actually presented at the last Space Elevator Conference on “why the space elevator will not be built on Earth.”)
It looks like the Games will be held again next year to see if anyone can claim the $1.1 million prize for a 5 m/s climb. LaserMotive is pretty certain that they can do it, next week if necessary. (The only reason they didn’t manage it on Friday is that their climber stuck to the bottom stop, adding almost 10 kilos of drag and turning their climb into the first ever vertical laser-powered tractor pull.)
