LaserMotive’s laser-beaming powered robot climber ascends the 3,000-foot cable suspended from a helicopter at the Space Elevator Games. The real thing, big enough to carry passengers in their own cabins, might take a day or two to get into space. But with no gravity stresses to speak of.
UPDATE: The games are over and LaserMotive won $900K. The big prize, however, is still out there.
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Posted in Science/Engineering, Space
Tagged Lasermotive, space elevator, Space Elevator Games, wireless power beaming
It ain’t rocket science. In some ways, it’s harder. And never more so than this year. The August 5 games have come a long way since the tether was held up by a crane-on-wheels. This time it’s to be held up by a helicopter hovering four thousand three hundred feet (one kilometer) above the Mojave Desert at Edwards AFB where the space shuttles land. For that reason alone, we’re likely to see it on television and YouTube and elsewhere. So get your background here and here and here.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 