By Elevator Into Space - 2009. Results

    Day 1
    Day 2

    On the third day, again no one was able to beat LaserMotive. I partially watched the live broadcast, although it was terrible. The video lagged, and at the best moments gave a maximum of 1fps. But it was still interesting to see.

    The steel cable was fixed on the ground, the other end was tied to a helicopter. After obtaining permission from the coordinators, the device was mounted on a cable and a helicopter, pulling the cable, raised the device to the starting mark - 100 m. Engineers of one of the teams stocked up on bicycles and scurried back and forth before starting, it was fun to watch. Starting windows were coordinated with the military and the go-ahead was given only after a signal from there.

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    It is also interesting to read the descriptions of the participants themselves. In particular, USST is toldthat they were unlucky from the start. Their main engine rotor broke, they replaced, but the replacement engine did not work. While they frantically tried to fix at least one, they missed two of the three launch windows. It seems that everything worked and they were ready to start in the third window. They pulled the elevator to the starting point and then the beam positioning system using GPS lost the satellites. The guys say that this never happened during the tests. They urgently switched to manual guidance, but could not cope with it.

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    Kansas city space pirates: On the first day, the radio transmitter for altitude and speed of the device failed. As a result, at an altitude of 750 meters they lost a tip. The captain says that a similar problem was in tests in Seattle, but it seemed to be solved and he could not justify $ 1000 for equipment operating at a different frequency. After the failure of the first day, they ordered an urgent delivery of equipment, and before the start of the next day the equipment was installed and tested.
    On the second day, another problem got out - a beacon on the cart arbitrarily turned off. When this happens, the laser begins to wander around the sky and should be immediately turned off. After turning on the beacon, the laser homing back, but each lasted from 5 to 15 seconds, during which time the trolley managed to significantly lose height. As a result, the lighthouse turned off for 25 seconds. The sun had already set and the elevator camera could not see, manual guidance was also impossible. The team spat on the attempt and began to fix the problem. It's a shame that the problem also crawled out in tests, a new module was assembled and prepared for installation. But the team spent all the time before the starts on working with telemetry and they did not have enough time for this module. The next night, everyone changed the module of the lighthouse.
    On the third day, two elevators were rolled out. Considering that the attempt was the last, they loaded the first elevator in full to take the first place (places were given according to the “score”, which was calculated as speed * weight of the cargo / weight of the elevator). As they themselves admit, they were greedy. The module overheated and rolled slowly. Then they took it off and put it on another, lightweight. They immediately decided that they would not fight for 5 m / s, here they would get 2 m / s. But again, there are a lot of parameters, all parameters are noticeably walking, the protection from the parameters going beyond the operating range did not work ... As a result, the elevator traveled a little bit back and forth, went up, and at the height the radio module again failed. The camera could not focus on the elevator and, in order to avoid damage to the helicopter, the laser was turned off.

    I imagine the feelings of these teams. Especially the second.

    Result: LaserMotive victory, $ 900,000. Debriefing
    : If any trouble can occur, it will happen. (from)

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