By Elevator Into Space - 2009
Shortly after the news of the winner of the lunar landing module construction contest, another arrived in time. The defendants again are the research teams, space and a million dollars.
This time, a team - a participant in the annual Space Elevator Games 2009 competition for the construction of a space elevator - has already received $ 900,000 . The competition takes place on November 4-6. This year the task is to build an elevator that rises along the cable to a height of 1 km at a speed of at least 5 m / s to get the main prize of $ 1.1 million, and no less than 2 m / s to get $ 0.9 million. The
elevators are powered by laser beam energy. Controlling this beam to ensure continuous power supply is a serious task that only one of the three teams announced for the competition managed to solve today - LaserMotive. But they did not go as smoothly as we would like. After the first 300 meters that the platform flew at the desired speed of 5 m / s, the speed dropped sharply, and although it was possible to recover, 5 m / s did not work - only 3.5 m / s. Here's what happens in the labs and on test teams:
What is still interesting - only 45 minutes per day are allotted for the competition. Not because the participants and the jury get tired. But because this is the only window when there is no danger of damaging a satellite in orbit with a laser.
Yes, the future is almost here.
This time, a team - a participant in the annual Space Elevator Games 2009 competition for the construction of a space elevator - has already received $ 900,000 . The competition takes place on November 4-6. This year the task is to build an elevator that rises along the cable to a height of 1 km at a speed of at least 5 m / s to get the main prize of $ 1.1 million, and no less than 2 m / s to get $ 0.9 million. The
elevators are powered by laser beam energy. Controlling this beam to ensure continuous power supply is a serious task that only one of the three teams announced for the competition managed to solve today - LaserMotive. But they did not go as smoothly as we would like. After the first 300 meters that the platform flew at the desired speed of 5 m / s, the speed dropped sharply, and although it was possible to recover, 5 m / s did not work - only 3.5 m / s. Here's what happens in the labs and on test teams:
What is still interesting - only 45 minutes per day are allotted for the competition. Not because the participants and the jury get tired. But because this is the only window when there is no danger of damaging a satellite in orbit with a laser.
Yes, the future is almost here.