As part of the competition, the participants must raise a small robot simulating an elevator cabin, to a height of kilometers on a cable, while it is driven by shooting laser beams from the ground * The best team managed to raise the robot to the helicopter but not at the speed required by the regulations - 18 km/h
A robot powered by a ground-based laser cannon climbed a long cable stretched from a helicopter on Wednesday to advance in a $2 million competition to test the possible concept of the space elevator. A team that included participants from Missouri, Alaska and Seattle competed at Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert, known to all as the alternate landing site for the space shuttles.
The space elevator competition began after checking the cables, refueling the helicopters and waiting for the appropriate time window in which the lasers can be fired without damaging the satellites passing overhead. The competition required climbing about a kilometer on a cable stretched from a helicopter hovering above the ground. The LaserMotive company's device climbed to the top of the cable for about four minutes and immediately repeated the operation.
In the first attempt on Wednesday, the elevator was able to reach the starting point with the help of the helicopter but was unable to move despite attempts to send laser beams at it. After being lowered to the ground for a pinch or two, the elevator was raised again to the starting point. She managed to climb the first 300 meters in less than a minute, which met the requirement of an average speed of 5 meters per second. The speed slowed down a bit towards reaching the top, but as mentioned, the team was able to make the robot climb for 4 minutes, which allows the team to win the second prize - in the amount of 900 thousand dollars given for the quality of the laser engine.
In the second round that took place the next day, the Laser Motiv team managed to repeat the achievement and even slightly improve the times, but part of the success is due to a reduction in weight from the climbing compartment, and this led to a drop in the score.
The installation consists of a square of photovoltaic panels measuring 60 x 60 centimeters and above it an engine installation and a thin triangular frame. The two founders of Laser Motif, Jordan Carr and Thomas Nagt said that they were relieved after two years of work, they said that the real goal is to develop a business venture based on the idea behind the drive, and not the futuristic idea of reaching space using an elevator that climbs on a cable. "We are both skeptical about the success of the elevator idea in the near future." Carr said, stressing that the competition demonstrated that laser propulsion works.
The second group that was nicknamed the "Pirates of Kansas City" led by Nick Burrow how he allows the robot to grab the cable using the wheels of a skateboard and a laser aimed at it using an Xbox remote. "He never climbed more than 24 meters," he said. A Crude-Looking Machine But Eventually Started to Climb The rig climbed too slowly to win the Glashoe prize but managed to get within about 50 meters of the summit before operators had to shut down the laser to protect a passing satellite. Even the next day, in the second round, the team failed in all its attempts to get the robot to climb up to the helicopter. Ben Shelf, CEO of the Spaceword Foundation, which sponsors the competition, said that the individuals had minor problems with the laser direction, but the main problem occurred in the mechanical system.
The third team, from Saskatchewan, Canada, was unable to get their robot to take off all days of the competition.
According to Shelf, the competition has been going on for five years and there are many obstacles to overcome. "Now that the competition has moved to practical lines I am happy, no matter what the results will be."
The competition, which is also funded by NASA's Discovery Program, is designed to encourage the development of theories into practical applications. The idea of the space elevator was raised back in the sixties and was published in the book of Arthur C. Clark "Fountains of Paradise" from 1979. Space elevators are considered a way to reach space without relying on the expensive and dangerous launchers.
According to the vision, electricity-driven tools will move up and down a cable anchored to a ground structure and will continue tens of thousands of kilometers up to the mass point in the geosynchronous orbit, thus being able to remain at a fixed point above the earth.
The electricity will be supplied to the elevator cells through the transmission of power from ground lasers pointing at photovoltaic cells at the bottom of the climbing cell - something like a system for receiving electricity from the upside-down sun.
In the last three years, no winner has been announced in the space elevator competition, but the competition is getting tough. The tool must climb at an average speed of at least 5 meters per second (18 km/h) to win the first prize. The prize for the laser can also be given if the cell climbs at a speed of 2 meters per second. The rules allow the entire prize of 2 million dollars to be given to one team or to divide the amount between all three teams according to their achievements. The organizers of the competition say that if the winning team had succeeded in completing the course at the required speed, they could have won the entire prize, but due to the issue of speed, the remaining amount, amounting to 1.1 million dollars, will be transferred to the following competitions.
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Driving the elevator using an electric motor that receives energy through a laser beam is indeed one of the options being tested.
The great advantage of this solution is that there is no need to load batteries on the elevators (thereby increasing its weight) or to run electrical cables along the length of the cable (the length of which is expected to be over 36000 km, thus increasing its weight immeasurably.
Contrary to claims, other solutions are also being tested. It is not clear to me why the strange claim was made in this regard, especially from a person who in the same response also claimed that this alternative was not planned at all.
This is a competition for the development of technology, therefore precautions are also taken to prevent damage to the satellites.
An operational system that will be operated with this technology will be oriented so that it will never interfere with the satellites.
The fact that there are many problems to solve does not mean that none of them need to be solved. Of course, the opposite is true and you need to solve them all.
It reminds me of the story about the man who was at odds with his anger and she decided one day to try to reconcile.
Therefore, when she came to visit her daughter, she also brought the groom two ties as a gift.
The groom, who also wanted to improve the relationship, ran straight into the room and tied one of the ties to show his mother-in-law how much he liked the gift.
When he left the room full of smiles, his mother-in-law scolded him: "What?! You don't like the second tie anymore?!".
To be clear: the fact that one of the problems is being dealt with is not evidence that the others are not being dealt with, and a complaint that one is dealing with this or that problem may only result in not being faced with any problem.
I guess I'm not rehashing anyone, but it turns out that sometimes you still have to say the obvious.
What does the laser have to do with it?
It's actually a vertical electric train, and as you know, no one would think of moving a train with a laser-
After all, electricity can be transmitted through the tracks.
To my father Blizovsky
Regarding today's image in astronomy it is written that M7 is a cluster 1000 light years away that spans 25 million light years. I bet it will only span 25 light years.
Check it out and sorry if I'm wrong.
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Sabdarmish Yehuda
I don't understand what these games are. Will they really raise the elevator into space with a laser beam? And each time stop the laser for fear of the satellite reaching the area? And what about all the other problems of the elevator into space such as fire, hurricanes, terrorism?, and by the way there is also the problem of the elevator cable colliding with low-orbit satellites.
Isn't it better to have a competition for a method that will take a ton of cargo into space at a minimum price? Why limit yourself to only an elevator to space and not reduce risks by checking other options?
It is similar to a person who puts all his money on one stock, even if it is "promising".
Food for thought
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Sabdarmish Yehuda
Stunning…
This is our way to start the space age.