Space Elevator Going Up
Although they didn’t win a prize, the University of Saskatchewan Space Team (USST) did better than any other group at this year’s X Prize Cup, even carrying a cash payload on their space elevator.
Competing in the Beamed Power Challenge, an event that requires the creation of a elevator or crawler able to climb a 55-meter-long ribbon at at lease one meter per second using only external power (solar, infrared, microwave or other), the USST came closest. The engineering students’ crawler made the climb in 57 seconds, just two second short of the target, but it was unable to descent under its own power.
As for the cash payload, it consisted of a toonie, a U.S. $1 coin, a $1 U.S. bill and a tool tag.
Read about the team and the competition by going to U of S Engineering.
To read even more about the competition, go to Space Elevator.
To read CBC’s coverage of the event, go to CBC.
And, to view the Discovery Channel item on the USST, go to Discovery.