NASA Unveils Centennial Challenges

Burt Rutan and SpaceShipOne won the $10 million Ansari X Prize race to launch the first privately built spacecraft. Now NASA has a new Centennial Challenges program, seeking to spark technical innovations.

NASA announced Wednesday that it will award $50,000 each to the first teams to develop a Space Age tether and a wireless method for powering robots called Space Elevator climbers.

For details:

• The single most difficult task in building the Space Elevator is achieving the required tether strength-to-weight ratio -- in other words, developing a material that is both strong enough and light enough to support the 60,000 mile long tether.
• Compared to the best commercially available tether, NASA needs a material that is almost 25 times better - about as great a leap as from wood to metal. The 2005 competition is documented here.
• The website implies there will also be a 2006 competition, but documentation on it is not provided.
• In 2005 the Space Elevator climbers which will first be allowed to weigh 25-50 kg [50-100 lbs], and must ascend the ribbon at about 1 m/s. [3 feet per second or 2.5 MPH] powered by a 10 kWatt Xenon search-light (80 cm beam diameter, about 25% efficient), which should yield a climber power budget of about 500 watts (Prize is $50,000, $20,000 and $10,000 to the 3 best teams).
• Then in 2006 there will be another Challenge in which the climbers net weight will be limited to 25 kg [50-100 lbs], and must ascend the ribbon at a minimum of 1 m/s. [3 feet per second or 2.5 MPH]. The systems required for the 2006 competition are significantly more complex than those for 2005. In addition to the climbers, the designers have to add a tracking power beaming system. The 2006 purse, provided by NASA, is now $150,000 - NASA is offering $100,000, $40,000 and $10,000 to the 3 best teams (plus any potentially unclaimed prizes from 2005). Power is unlimited.