NASA Power-Beaming Challenge Date Set

NASA Dryden to Host 2009 Power Beaming Challenge July 14, NASA (With video)

"NASA's Centennial Challenges Program and the Spaceward Foundation will hold the 2009 Power-Beaming Challenge, part of Spaceward's Space Elevator Games, at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on July 14."

"This is the fourth year for the Space Elevator Games. The first competition required teams to ascend a 50-meter tether at an average speed of 1 meter per second with power provided by ordinary spotlights. This year, to be eligible for the $2 million prize, competitors will be required to race their laser-powered vehicles up a 1-kilometer vertical steel cable at an average speed of 5 meters per second."

Editor's note: My sources tell me that there could be winner of this years Power-Beaming Challenge and its $2 million prize. There are 6 entrants in the challenge. The Spaceward Foundation who manage the challenge have also launched a new web site at http://www.spaceelevatorgames.org/. SpaceRef will have full coverage at our Space Elevator Reference web site.