Space Elevator Games In final Prep for August 5-14, 2009 : Delayed at Least 4 weeks

The Space Elevator Games for 2009 were delayed but there are competitors no site and final preparations are occuring.

UPDATE: The space elevator games are delayed at least 4 weeks.

See the Space Elevator blog to track events.

Power beaming Competition
August 5, 2009 Sept or October 2009
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center,
Edwards Air Force Base, Mojave, CA
Teams [down to 3 or 4]
[KCSP, LM, USST, NSS, McGill, U MICH]
1 km vertical raceway,
laser-powered vehicles
$2,000,000 Total prize purse (two levels)

7/09: Teams arrive for setup (Dryden)
7/21 – 7/23: Laser tests (Dryden)
7/22: Test flights (Dryden)
7/17: SE day at SFF conference (Ames)
8/14: Tether Challenge (Seattle)
8/13 – 8/17: Space Elevator Conference (Seattle)
TBA: Power Beaming Challenge (Dryden

From July 19, 2009

Laser Clearinghouse (LCH) inspection went off without a hitch – with flying colors, actually. We now have KCSP (Kansas City Space Pirates), USST (University of Saskatchewan) and LM (Laser Motive) all ok’d to proceed.

True to Monday, NSS, McGill, and U Michigan have not met the qualification deadline – they are all in very advanced stages, and probably could qualify if the games were held a month from now, but we had to make the call, and so they will not be competing this year.

UAlberta is due here Tuesday morning, and we’ll be able to evaluate them then.KCSP and USST wil head out for more testing tomorrow morning (KCSP qualified 2 weeks ago, and USST will aim to qualify over the next two day).

Three teams are definitely in; the Kansas City Space Pirates, LaserMotive, USST (University of Saskatchewan)

University of Alberta was on site and was still being qualified as of last report.

There do not seem to be any teams entered for the tether competition this year.