Laser-powered 'space elevator' wins $900,000 NASA prize

LaserMotive, a Seattle-area company specializing in laser power beaming, has claimed a $900,000 prize with their photovoltaic-powered machine that has climbed nearly 3,000 feet (1 km) at an average speed greater than 2 meters per second, or just over four minutes.

With a payload in tote, the robot climbed a long cable suspended from a helicopter to test ideas that can potentially lead to the realization of space elevators.

The accomplishment took place on the first day of the Power Beaming competition in the 2010 Space Elevator Games at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California's Mojave Desert.

While the LaserMotive team fell short of reaching NASA's top-level prize of up to $2 million for climbing the entire length of the cable in three minutes or less (about five meters per second), they still hold bragging rights as the first in the 3-year history of NASA's space elevator contest to climb a 2,953-foot-long ribbon.

Here is a video of one of LaserMotive's attempts:

The company doesn't have plans to use the technology to access space via an elevator climbing a cable, but rather to develop a business based on the idea of beaming power. In fact, the prize will serve as seed money to develop technology and system prototypes for use in aerospace and other industries. For instance, it can potentially be used to provide power to remote areas of military bases or to operate electrically powered unmanned aircraft for extended periods.

Here are additional sources covering the story:

CBS News.com, SmartPlanet, The 2009 Space Elevator Games Blog, PhysOrg.com