LaserMotive Wins $900,000 from NASA in Space Elevator Games

Andy Petro of NASA's Centennial Challenges program congratulates Tom Nugent and Jordan Kare of the LaserMotive team that won the Space Elevator Power-Beaming Challenge Games at NASA Dryden Nov. 6, as Ben Shelef of the sponsoring Spaceward Foundation looks on. LaserMotive won the second-tier award of $900,000 by propelling their laser-powered robotic climber up a 900-meter cable suspended from a hovering helicopter in 3 minutes and 48 seconds.

The Seattle-based LaserMotive team was declared the winner of the Space Elevator Power-Beaming Challenge Games Nov. 6 after the final day of competition at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California.

The LaserMotive won $900,000 from NASA's Centennial Challenges program for meeting the second-level standard of having their laser-powered robot climb a 900-meter-long cable suspended from a hovering helicopter in less than 7.5 minutes. The team accomplished that goal four times in the first two days of competition, the quickest being in 3 minutes and 48 seconds.

Noting that the Space Elevator Games had "been a very successful competition," NASA's Centennial Challenges director Andy Petro told those attending an awards presentation at NASA Dryden late Friday afternoon that "Power beaming is truly a 21st century technology."

Had LaserMotive's climber been able to climb the entire length of the cable in three minutes or less at a speed of at least five meters per second, the team would have claimed the top-level prize of $2 million. As it stands, the remaining $1.1 million is still available, and Ben Shelef of the sponsoring Spaceward Foundation said another Power-Beaming Challenge will be held in the future in hopes that one of competing teams might be able to claim that prize by meeting the five-meters-per-second standard.