Thursday, March 09, 2006

Space elevator Robot Passes 1,000-Foot Mark

LiftPort’s balloon-based test marks milestone on long road to orbit space.com msnbc.com, courtesy JmeJ

In a related development, the Spaceward Foundation of Mountain View, California has announced the First Annual Space Elevator Competition, to be held Oct. 21 at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. Two competitions are being held: the Tether Challenge and Beam Power Challenge. These are two of the key technologies required to build a space elevator.

The Tether Challenge will test the strength and weight of carbon nanotube-based materials. The Beam Power Challenge will feature climbers attempting to scale a 200-foot (61-meter) tether powered by a high-intensity light source.

See also http://www.spaceelevator.com/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator.