Elevator:2010 is a competition with monetary prizes similar to the Ansari X Prize, but with the purpose of developing space elevator and space elevator-related technologies. Elevator:2010 organizes annual competitions for climbers, ribbons and power-beaming systems, and is operated by a partnership between Spaceward Foundation and the NASA Centennial Challenges.
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On March 23, 2005 NASA's Centennial Challenges program announced a partnership with the Spaceward Foundation regarding Elevator:2010, to raise the amounts of monetary prizes and to get more teams involved in the competitions.[1]
There are two (out of the currently seven) competitions of the NASA Centennial Challenges which fall under the Elevator:2010 banner: The Tether Challenge and the Beam Power Challenge. These are also the two original competitions.
This competition presents the challenge of constructing super-strong tethers, a crucial component of a space elevator.[2] The 2005 contest was to award US$50,000 to the team which constructed the strongest tether, with contests in future years requiring that each winner outperform that of the previous year by 50%. No competing tether surpassed the commercial off-the-shelf baseline and the prize was increased to $200,000 in 2006.
Of the four teams competing, three were disqualified for not following length rules—one of these cases by a fraction of a millimeter. Ultimately, the house-tether won against the remaining team. The unchallenged house-tether was stronger than the machine used to test the tether itself: it began to fail at 1,600 pounds-force (7,100 N), forcing the test to be called off.
Contest organizers have placed the next year's prize money at $2,000,000 USD for this competition.
The Beam Power Challenge is a competition to build a wirelessly-powered ribbon-climbing robot. The contest involves having the robot raise a specified payload to a specific height within a limited period of time. The first competition in 2005 would have awarded US$50,000, US$20,000, and US$10,000 to the three best-performing teams meeting the minimum benchmark of 1 metre per second (3.3 ft/s). However no team met the minimum standard in 2005.
In 2006 the prize for first place increased to $150,000 with the goal of climbing 50 meters in under 1 minute. It was held October 20–21, 2006 at the Las Cruces International Airport at the Wirefly X PRIZE Cup. 13 teams entered the competition. Only one team, University of Saskatchewan, was able to climb the tether in under 1 minute, reaching the top in 58 s.
The Challenge had $500,000 in prize money for the 2007 competition.
At the 2009 Challenge, on November 6, 2009, LaserMotive successfully used lasers to drive a 4.8 kg (11 lb) device up a 900 m (2,950 ft) cable suspended from a helicopter.[3][4] Energy is transmitted to the climber using a high-power infrared beam.[5] LaserMotive's entry, which was the only climber to top the cable, reached an average speed of 13 km/h (8.1 mph) and earned a $900,000 prize. This marked both a performance record, and the first award of a cash prize at the Challenge.[4]
LaserMotive won the US$900,000 prize for the Level 1 power beaming prize in 2009 with the achievement of 2 metres per second (6.6 ft/s) climber speed over a sub-kilometer climb. The Level 2 power beaming prize, for a 5 metres per second (16 ft/s) climb, remains available for future competitions.[6]
After LaserMotive claimed the US$900,000 prize for the Level 1 power beaming prize in 2009, the Space Elevator games being conducted by Elevator:2010 has a prize purse for future competitions of US$4,000,000, for both the Power Beaming (Climber) Competition and the Tether Strength Competition.[6]
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