Space Elevators – Making of… by Milota Sidorova

Have you heard of space elevators? It’s so suggesting, reminding of some Arthur Clarke’s fantasies. The space and the Earth connected upon a wire. The elevator would climb up the wire and save the costs of rockets and space shuttles. Sounds like a bizarre utopia, but let the world speak! Space shuttle landing site or Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert hosted a technological competition aimed exactly on this topic. Teams had to pass the test of climbing upon nearly 1 km long cable. The elevators were hung up on a wire anchored with the ground extending to a levitating helicopter. For three years there was no winner in the competition, but this year brought a v! ictory to LaserMotive team. Its elevator beat the distance within four minutes. The device aiming to get $2 million prize was a square of photo voltaic panels (2x2 feet), topped by a motor and triangle frame. The motor was fueled by a laser beam, so the whole machine didn’t need any additional electricity supply. The concept of electricity generating elevators is nothing new for the scientists, but although the first step was successful, the commercial reality is a distant future. As for the competition, the round had to be stopped because of powerful laser beams that could harm satellites in the atmosphere. That’s why the time to climb kilometer long wire was limited. Despite of restriction, some devices passed the qualification. Jordin Kare of LaserMotive said it was the proof the beaming power was working, but he was also skeptical of its near-term prospects. The beaming power, however has a wider perspective. It is a stable source of energy for any place wi! thing the wire electricity power.

related story (sgx15 827): http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091105/ap_on_sc/us_space_elevat...

by Milota Sidorova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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