Space Elevator 2007
I got a call today from Brian Turner who leads the Kansas City Space Pirates; great guys who gave me a lot of help with Starclimber Cinderella in 2006.
This year they've made a successful qualifying run at ~3 meters per second up to 80ft altitude. They're using solar power concentrated by an array of ground-based mirrors, focused on high-concentration, high-efficiency photovoltaic cells.
So far a total of three solar teams and one laser team have qualified for the finals, racing for the $500,000 prize. Here's the link for the latest news:
http://www.spaceelevatorblog.com
Here's the KC Space Pirates team site:
http://kcspacepirates.com
This year they've made a successful qualifying run at ~3 meters per second up to 80ft altitude. They're using solar power concentrated by an array of ground-based mirrors, focused on high-concentration, high-efficiency photovoltaic cells.
So far a total of three solar teams and one laser team have qualified for the finals, racing for the $500,000 prize. Here's the link for the latest news:
http://www.spaceelevatorblog.com
Here's the KC Space Pirates team site:
http://kcspacepirates.com