Space Elevator Level 1 prize

[Ciro Pabón]

The concept was simple...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO1EV6A76ZE[/youtube]

... and the winner of the Level 1 prize (1 km in less than 4 minutes), that is, 900.000 devaluated dollars is.... drum roll.... Laser Motive!

http://www.spaceelevatorgames.org/

Space elevator: you put in orbit twenty tons of cable in a shuttle or two. Afix cable to platform. Drop cable. Use climbers to wowen cable upwards and downwards. Three years later, with a strong enough cable, you can move 20 tons up per trip.

The travel takes a week. Longest elevator ride in the world.

Any ideas?

[Giblet]

I've always loved the concept of space tethers.

Another kind of tether concept is to have one rotating and swinging past the planet, using gravity to make a kind of rotational pendulum that produces power from passing through the magnetic field of a planet or moon.

I think the concept of a space elevator is sound, so long as they can actually make a cable that is strong and light enough.