EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif
Laser-powered elevator to space hits some snags
By Harry Kats
Associated Press
A laser-powered robot failed to complete its climb up a long cable dangling from a helicopter Wednesday in a $2 million competition to test the potential reality of the science fiction concept of space elevators.
The contest requires their machines to climb 2,953 feet (nearly 1 kilometer) up a cable slung beneath a helicopter hovering nearly a mile high.The Kansas City, Mo. team was first off the ground.
Its climber, a flat machine several feet square, initially failed to respond to laser power and was lowered, examined and sent back up. On the second try it began moving and then stopped.
On the third try it began moving steadily, but then trouble developed ...a message on the teams computer stated,:"No way in hell am I climbing up there".
It failed to climb all the way up before the laser had to be shut off to protect satellites, said Ted Semons of the sponsoring Spaceward Foundation.
The team was expected to try again Friday
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