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Posted on 11/10/2009 6:27:13 PM PST by KevinDavis
NASA and Spaceward Foundation Award Prize Money for Successful Wireless Power Demonstration
WASHINGTON -- NASA has awarded $900,000 in prize money to a Seattle company that successfully demonstrated new wireless energy beaming technology which could one day be used to help power a "space elevator."
LaserMotive of Seattle was awarded the money after its performance in the Power Beaming Challenge competition, which was a demonstration of wireless power transmission that enabled a robotic device to climb a vertical cable. The competition was held Nov. 4-6 at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif. The Spaceward Foundation of Mountain View, Calif., manages the competition for NASA's Centennial Challenges program.
(Excerpt) Read more at nasa.gov ...
Technically, a space elevator is physically connected to the ground with a cable, so I don’t see why it would need a wireless power source. It’s almost a contradiction.
The tether would have to be very light and thin (most likely a few cm wide strip of carbon nanotubes thinner than a sheet of paper) so it is impossible to use it as a current carrying conductor like an electric trolley or slot-car track. Solar power would be converted to microwave RF at the counterbalance point and beamed “down” the elevator to provide power to the lift unit.
Yes I heard it would have to be carbon nanotubes, since it’s the only thing strong enough. I’ve no idea how thick it would have to be however. I guess that’s why they don’t have me working on the project.
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