Seattle team wins prize in space elevator race

LOS ANGELES – A Seattle team has collected a $900,000 prize in a NASA-backed competition to develop the concept of an elevator to space – an idea spurred by science fiction novels.

The team’s robotic machine raced up more than 2,950 feet of cable dangling from a helicopter.

Powered by a ground-based laser pointed up at the robot’s photovoltaic cells that converted the light into electricity, the LaserMotive machine completed one of its climbs in about three minutes and 48 seconds.

Space elevators are envisioned as a way to reach space without the risk and expense of rockets.

Instead, electrically powered vehicles would run up and down a cable anchored to a ground structure and extending thousands of miles up to a mass in geosynchronous orbit – the kind of orbit communications satellites are placed in to stay over a fixed spot on the Earth.

LaserMotive LLC was presented the check by Andy Petro, program manager of NASA’s Centennial Challenges.

The three-day contest required competitors’ vehicles to get to the top, with rewards possible for completing climbs at two levels of speed. LaserMotive could have claimed $2 million if its robot had climbed faster.

Thomas Nugent, one of the principals of LaserMotive, said the company believed the contest would demonstrate the concept of “power beaming” – transmitting energy by laser over long distances.

“It took a lot of years of hard work by just a great team of people who have understanding families,” he said.