There's nothing like a good three-way shootout

No kidding.  Three teams left standing, and all three firmly believe they can make 5 m/s, though in the last round only one of them made 2 m/s. Overly optimistic? not really. LaserMotive has every right to be confident, and KCSP and USST have gathered enough data to know that the target is within reach of their systems.

$1,100,000 are on the line. We’ve set the tentative date for May 10th 2010. Will someone blink first? Will this be a three-way shoot-out? Will there be a surprise fourth entry? We’ll be keeping you posted on their progress over the next 6 months.

Update: In regards to timing, since the round 2 performance requirement is the same as it was in round 1, holding it six months from now is a reasonable choice, especially since round 1 was delayed by about the same amount of time. Round 2 is fully open to new teams or to teams that haven’t qualified and are interested in trying again – it is simply our assessment that at this point it will be hard to catch up to the existing teams. If you’re interested in forming a team, please head on over to the power beaming page, and contact us for registration – we’d love to have you!

In other news, do check out some excellent entries at the Space Elevator Blog – the post-game analysis from USST and KCSP, a radio-cast with LM, and the upcoming blooper reel – http://www.SpaceElevatorBlog.com.

Here is a UStream capture, courtesy of Marc Boucher of Spaceref.com

The pair calling the shots are Ted Semon of SpaceElevatorBlog.com and Dr. Bryan Laubscher. Kudos for the narrating – we are all new at this, and they didn’t even have a basic fact-sheet to work off of. In addition, keep in mind that we’re hearing only half of the conversation over the radio, since the team’s radios were not amplified and so were out of range of the media center.

(For example, when “test” – Dryden’s Mike Kapitzke at the ops van – is asking about moving the helicopter, “Helo Ground” – Spaceward’s Keith Mackey responded that he’s on it and they are watching the barrel cam for any such conflict, but this dialog is missing)

Also, we could not pipe the Infra-red views we had at the anchor to the media center, which would have added a lot of context to the runs.

So given all of that, I think Ted and Bryan earned their keep for that day – good job!.

Here is a collage of several power beaming videos.

The sources are:

• Our judging cam (with a running clock at the bottom)
• LaserMotive barrel-cam (with criss-cross lines and a reddish hue
• KCSP’s barrel-cam (black-and-white looking)

Sources we are still aggregating:

• NASA’s long range cam (for a view that doesn’t diminish with altitude
• USST’s tracking cam
• Hand-held videos

So do expect a more elaborate version of this sometime this week.  (Next time we do this, I hope the tracking cams will be available over the live webcast.)

All three teams show in the videos – can you tell the systems apart by now?

It is never too early to speculate…

We started the week with three teams, all of whom capable (on paper) of achieving 5 m/s. What follows are my thoughts about what we can expect from these teams if they choose to re-compete in the next round of the power beaming challenge, which will only have the 5 m/s benchmark level.

LaserMotive:

LaserMotive was clearly able to demonstrate the most amount of power transferred, and the highest degree of efficiency. In their last climb, attempting 5 m/s, they modified their climber to decrease its weight (LM’s Dave Bashford referred to this as “Steamboat racing”) and ended up removing too much structure – they got stuck to their launch structure and dragged it up the cable 75′, with an additional force larger than the weight of their climber… With more than 1000 Watts transferred (peak) and roughly a horse power on average, their climber is clearly superbly designed, and is capable of achieving this speed. LM’s can still improve their tracking, and the climber can (obviously) be made lighter – they will therefore have a comfortable margin in the next round.

Kansas City Space Pirates:

Kansas City Space Pirates demonstrated the best beam director and beam quality in the games. Their TRUMPF powered system is clearly capable of putting the most power on the climber, in the most accurate and consistent manner, and be able to do so at much higher distances than 1 km. Their downfall was the design-point of the climber, which was lightweight yet relatively weak. On paper, this cancels out, but aerodynamic forces do not go down with weight, and clearly Brian will be re-visiting these parameters in the coming weeks. With a redesigned climber, KCSP can enjoy more photons on their target than LM, but will likely lag in conversion efficiency. With a re-designed climber, KCSP can be competitive with LM.

USST:

Ironically, USST probably had both tracking technology and power conversion technology down to a level that could be at least equal with LM, but they experienced a set of problems related to several aspects of their system, and ended up almost completely sitting it out. They are therefore an unknown. I do hope they get the problems resolved and are able to make it down for another trip.

Spaceward:

It is no secret that it took us a couple of iterations to figure out how to set up the racetrack…  Our job next time, however, is much easier – we have the racetrack stored in a box, we have the right crew, the right venue – we know how much it costs, and how long it takes to do. We’ll be making small changes in the rulebook and setup to facilitate smoother operations, but otherwise – see you all in the next round, date TBA.

To the winners, the spoils!

This pictures says it all – LaserMotive won the level 1 ($900 k) bracket for driving a vehicle using power beaming to a height of 1 km at more than 2 m/s.

Their average speed was about 4 m/s, and they were clearly ahead of the competition.

The Kansas City Space Pirates made a number of runs, getting close to the top of the 1 km racetrack, but clearly were no match for LaserMotive.

USST were held back by technical issues, and we never found out how well they could have done.

The level 2 prize remains unclaimed – more on that soon.

Dryden’s John Kelly said it best when he commented that “we could not have scripted this better had we tried”.

LaserMotive is holding a commanding lead, but hasn’t broken into 5 m/s territory

USST with a much more powerful (but heavier) system is about to launch. They have been plagued by technical issues for the last two days, but everyone knows that if they have them solved, they’ll be at least competitive with LM.

KCSP with their ultralight climber have already shown that they can travel pretty much the whole distance, but we’re not sure if the can beat LM’s score.

USST is schedule to go first, then LM, then KCSP.

Will USST change everything around this morning?

Will LM raise the ante?

Will KCSP finish the day with an upset?

Stay tuned…

In all honesty, our second day was almost a repeat of the first…  except better…

LaserMotive retained their lead, and inched closer to the 5 m/s benchmark – they removed some payload, and thus ran a bit faster – the official times were 3:49 and 3:48 – 13 seconds faster, in fact, for a speed of 3.9 m/s. The payload was about 200 grams lighter – 0.4 kg (unofficial), for an unofficial score of 3.9 * 0.4 / 4.8 = 0.325.

The score is lower than last year’s, since the reduction in payload counts more against them then the increase in speed counts in their favor (The score is not just about going fastest, it is about carrying the most payload per unit time, relative to your own weight – “how much weight can an ant move in an hour, compared to its own body mass”)  thus within each prize bracket, the most efficient climb is likely the one carrying the most payload, and barely clearing the minimum speed.

Kansas City still failed short of reaching the top, though it seems that their problems are largely solved and so we can expect a credible challenge to LaserMotive from KCSP tomorrow.

USST were facing a series of problems, and were not able to run at all. What they can do Friday morning is anyone’s guess. Based on previous years, however, we should definitely not be counting them as having lost. All of their first-place climbs to date were made at the last minute of the last possible day.

Looking into tomorrow, we are expecting two last-chance attempts (KCSP and USST) to get into the prize purse, and one attempt to move from the 2 m/s bracket to the 5 m/s bracket.

The odds for a last-day upset are definitely greater than zero, though LaserMotive is sure starting out the day from a position of strength.

Stay Tuned – http://live.SpaceElevatorGames.org