[Fwd: NASA Announces Results From Beam & Tether Challenges]

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Randall <rvh40 () insightbb com>
Date: October 24, 2005 5:47:56 PM EDT
To: JMG <johnmacsgroup () yahoogroups com>, Dave <dave () farber net>
Cc: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Fwd: NASA Announces Results From Beam & Tether Challenges]


Climbing a cable, powered only by a searchlight?  WOW!

-------- Forwarded Message --------
From: NASA News <hqnews () mediaservices nasa gov>
To: NASA News <hqnews () mediaservices nasa gov>
Subject: NASA Announces Results From Beam & Tether Challenges
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 21:41:38 +0000 (GMT)

October 24, 2005

J.D. Harrington/Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington
(Phone: 202/358-5241/1979)

Metzada Shelef
Spaceward Foundation, Mountain View, Calif.
(Phone: 650/969-2010)

RELEASE: 05-347

NASA ANNOUNCES RESULTS FROM BEAM & TETHER CHALLENGES

NASA and the Spaceward Foundation announced the results of the 2005
Beam Power Challenge and Tether Challenge. Eleven teams competed in
the two competitions over the weekend at NASA's Ames Research Center
in Mountain View, Calif. Although no team claimed this year's prizes,
historic firsts were achieved.

In the Beam Power Challenge, teams had to build robotic climbers that
could scale a 200-foot cable powered only by the beam from an
industrial searchlight. The team that lifted the most mass in a
certain time would win the $50,000 prize. Although no team made it to
the top of the cable, Team SnowStar from the University of British
Columbia achieved the first beam-powered climb of approximately 20
feet. The University of Saskatchewan Space Design Team had the
farthest beam-powered climb, approximately 40 feet.

"What happened this weekend is akin to the Wright brothers' first
powered flight," said Spaceward Foundation founder, Metzada Shelef.
"We hope these short climbs will be the first in a series of much
longer climbs toward future space elevator concepts. The ingredients
are there to make some great future achievements." The Spaceward
Foundation is NASA's partner in this Challenge program.

In the Tether Challenge, teams had to create high-strength, low-weight
tethers, which were stretched to their limits in a head-to-head,
single-elimination competition. The Centaurus Aerospace Team produced
the strongest tether. But to claim the $50,000 prize, the strongest
team tether had to beat the house tether, constructed from the best
commercially-available material, by a margin of 50 percent. Centaurus
fell just short.

"The diversity of the teams, representing small businesses, university
students, and enthusiastic hobbyists, and the range of their
technical solutions, exceeded my expectations" said NASA's Centennial
Challenges program manager, Brant Sponberg. "This is especially
impressive when you realize the teams had only six months to prepare.
Even if a space elevator is never built, these are fundamental
technologies with important applications both within and outside
space exploration."

The prizes for next year's Beam Power Challenge and Tether Challenge
will be $200,000 each, including the unclaimed $50,000 purses from
this year. The competitions will increase in difficulty, as the teams
will have to provide their own power beam, and the house tether will
probably increase in strength.

NASA's Centennial Challenges program promotes technical innovation
through a novel program of prize competitions. It is designed to tap
the nation's ingenuity to make revolutionary advances to support the
Vision for Space Exploration and NASA goals.

The Centennial Challenges program is managed by NASA's Exploration
Systems Mission Directorate. The Spaceward Foundation is a
public-funded, non-profit organization dedicated to furthering the
cause of space access in educational curriculums and in the public
mindshare.

For information about the Centennial Challenges program on the Web,
visit:

http://centennialchallenges.nasa.gov

or

http://www.spaceward.org  For information about NASA and agency
programs on the Web, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/home


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