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The Dawn of Laser Powered Flight
So after the games were over we were sitting here with all
of this power beaming tech stuffed in my garage along with a network of
friends, teammates and sponsors. It made sense to look to develop the near term
applications for power beaming. So I am announcing a new direction for the KC Space
Pirates. Laser Powered Flight. In order for wireless power beaming to develop
to all it’s grand expectations it has to find and take the path with stepping
stones from here to there.
The first stone on our path will be laser powered flight. Announcement
coming soon. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
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Space Elevator development continues as the support community matures. ISEC.org is doing a great job in that. Carbon nanotubes are progressing slower than hoped for but power beaming has proven itself ready and able to power the space elevator when needed. In 2011 NASA dropped the Space Elevator Games. A balance could not be found between an exciting enough competition and a risk competitors (like us) would be willing to take. We successfully pushed the cutting edge out of our own reach.
A Recap.
2005: KC Space Pirates shake up the games as the dark horse competitor with the most powerful system the games had ever seen. We validated reflected sunshine for short range power beaming. $150,000- missed
2007: We came in Second and only missed the prize by 25 seconds. Wind, in a cascading failure, destroyed our climber keeping us from the prize. $500,000 - missed
2009: We again came in second. Tripped up by mysterious radio problems, compounded by constantly shifting safety requirements I failed to properly calibrate our system. $90,000 Consolation Prize out of a possible $2,000,000
Along the way we defeated teams with far more resources and experience while maintaining high standards of sportsmanship and professionalism. No team beat us in all three years. Each year we brought surprising innovation to the games. We enjoyed a fascination from the media for doing all of this without the trappings of big business or the large government supported programs and universities where this kind of research is typically done. Working mostly from my garage with the kind of feisty independence that classic pirates are known for. Just without the criminality that they are also known for. The NASA Centennial Chalanges Program was intended to reach non-traditional innovators and we answered the call loud and proud.
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There was supposed to be another round of the power beaming challenge in 2010. Basically a grudge match between the top 3 teams to push the max speed over 5 m/s and claim the remaining $1.1 million in prize money.
However management at NASA took the opportunity of having a winner to reinterpret Congress’s authorization for the Centennial challenges. The specific clause was that only US citizens were eligible for the prize. Although USST, The Canadian team, had a US citizen as the administrative captain, the team was clearly Canadian and the money would have went to Canada. This led to a big delay while options were explored to avoid disqualifying the team that had placed first every year of the competition except the last. Additionally NASA Dryden, the venue that hosted the competition, could not donate/discount as much of their services as they did last time around. This increased the venue cost by as much as 3 fold while the number of entrants had dropped to two. Us and LaserMotive. This would have made the cost to compete soar north of $100,000. So a new venue had to be found. Delay after delay has become the norm for the Space Elevator games.
Because of raising costs and continual delays. TRUMPF, Our Laser vendor, very apologetically withdrew their support. They had signed up for a 1 year sponsorship and it was rolling into year 3. I am thankful that we had their support while it lasted.
This forced us to drop out of the rematch. Leaving only one team- LaserMotive. Not much of a competition. So Spaceward, the organizer decided to rethink the games.
Spaceward, LaserMotive and myself have chatted off and on about what format of competition would best serve the interests of the public by advancing the state of the art while allowing a reasonable number of teams to compete.
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Although it is all old news by now. Lasermotive won the 2 Meters per second prize of $900,000. This leaves the $1.1 Million prize for 5 m/s unclaimed.
USST did not climb any significant distance because their tracking system could not get and keep a GPS signal. I have speculated that this was due to static charges built up on the helicopter discharging repeatedly down the cable. I don't have any concrete evidence of this and any tests of this theory are expensive and unlikely to occur. I hate to see a competitor taken out by factors beyond their control. Almost as much as I hate to be taken out by factors that are within my control.
We finished second and out of the money. Although we had numerous problems that we were able to deal with effectively through our preparations and problem solving abilities. We discovered our main problem was a simple missed adjustment that I made myself. We lacked the experience and equipment needed to identify the problem in time to save our 4.5 year $200,000+ effort from failing.
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Read more...
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The KC Space Pirates is a team entered in the 2009 Space Elevator games climber competition. The competition is put on by the Spaceward Foundation
NASA has put up a total of two million dollars in prize money!!
The competition is, in summary, a vertical drag race straight up a 1 kilometer cable. We must climb the cable with no fuel or batteries. The climbers are unmanned, and may only be powered by beamed energy. We did well last year but fell short of the money. The competition is developing technology to make it possible for everyone to go to space.
For more information visit Spaceward.org or visit their FAQ pages to learn more about the competition and the space elevator in general.
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