NASA power beaming challenge 2009 successfully completed!

The 4th edition of the NASA power beaming challenge, conducted by the Spaceward Foundation, has been successfully completed in the week of Nov 2, 2009. It offered a 1km vertical race track for space elevator climbers. This represented a tenfold increase in the length of the track in comparison to the previous challenge hold at Salt Lake City in October 2007. A helicopter had been applied this time in order to guarantee the stability of the 1 km long cable. Of the original six teams jockeying for the prize, three teams qualified and only one entered a climber that performed according to the tough requirements of NASA's USD K900 award: On Nov. 4, 2009, the elevator vehicle of the team LaserMotive, powered entirely by laser-delivered energy climbed a vertical steel cable to an altitude of 1000 meters, at a speed of nearly 4 meters per second. This climb set several records for power beaming, and was the first in five years of competitions to meet the threshold for a prize award in the NASA Centennial Challenge for Beamed Power.

For more information see our partner website at www.spaceward.org or go directly to the contest website at http://www.spaceelevatorgames.org.