Headed to Space? Take the Elevator

NASA-Sponsored Contest in Mojave Desert Attempts to Turn Science Fiction into Reality

(AP)  Rocketing into space? Some think an elevator might be the way to go.

That's the future goal of this week's $2 million Space Elevator Games in the Mojave Desert.

In a major test of the concept, robotic machines powered by laser beams will try to climb a cable suspended from a helicopter hovering more than a half-mile high.

Three teams have qualified to participate in the event on the dry lakebed near NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards. Attempts were expected from early Wednesday through Thursday.

Funded by a space agency program to explore bold technology, the contest is a step toward bringing the idea of a space elevator out of the realm of science fiction and into reality.

Theorized in the 1960s and then popularized by Arthur C. Clarke's 1979 novel "The Fountains of Paradise," space elevators are envisioned as a way to gain access to space without the risk and expense of rockets.

Instead, electrically powered vehicles would run up and down a cable anchored to a ground structure and extending thousands of miles up to a mass in geosynchronous orbit - the kind of orbit communications satellites are placed in to stay over a fixed spot on the Earth.

Electricity would be supplied through a concept known as "power beaming," ground-based lasers pointing up to photo voltaic cells on the bottom of the climbing vehicle - something like an upside-down solar power system.

The space elevator competition has not produced a winner in its previous three years, but has become increasingly difficult.

The vehicles must climb a cable six-tenths of a mile into the sky and move at an average speed of 16.4 feet per second.

The competition is sponsored by the nonprofit Spaceward Foundation with support from NASA's Centennial Challenges program.

[Sloughfoot]

A practical scientist/engineer once told me,"If it sounds to good to be true, it problably is." More like a thousand dollar comode than a future mode of space travel.

[j_mcdonald-2009]

"The vehicles must climb a cable six-tenths of a mile into the sky and move at an average speed of 16.4 feet per second. "

Why not just say they need to climb 1 kilometer in 200 seconds?

[gramto8]

by j_mcdonald-2009 November 5, 2009 6:16 AM EST
"The vehicles must climb a cable six-tenths of a mile into the sky and move at an average speed of 16.4 feet per second. "

Why not just say they need to climb 1 kilometer in 200 seconds?
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Do you think the reason could possibly be that this was written in the USA and we are not on the metric system?

[farmerbb]

It would be useful for those not familiar with the concept to explain that the cable (in a operating version) would be long enough to stay in place, similar to swinging a pail of water around you, on a rope. The rotation of the earth will do the swinging, and the satellite at the end of it will be far enough "out" (above you, in reality) that it will be in geosynchronous orbit - it stays in the same place overhead. Just like TV satellites. The trick is to build a cable light enough yet strong enough to hold its own weight and that of the satellite, PLUS handle the weight of the climbing machine and its payload. I am sure they will be able to make something that can climb such a cable.