LaserMotive Wins Level 1 Space Elevator Prize

Posted 9 Nov 2009 at 19:17 UTC by steve

LaserMotive won the $900,000 Level 1 prize at this year's Space Elevator competition, doing a 1 km climb at an average speed of 4 m/s. The Kansas City Space Pirates came close but didn't couldn't beat LaserMotive's score. USST showed promise but ran into technical problems this year. Each team's space elevator is a robot climber powered by a high-powered laser beam directed at the climber from the ground. A NASA press release sums up this year's competition. For more details on the contest and this year's teams, see the Space Elevator Games website. There are additional photos of the winners in at Space Elevator Blog. For more vidoe see the Spaceward Foundation YouTube channel. LaserMotive also has more photos and info in their blog.