It has taken 2 years to put together this round of the games – the most we’ve ever tried before was 100 m, with far weaker lasers, and we weren’t even spectacularly successful at that….  (well we sure pulled it off at the end, but it definitely wasn’t easy)

Luckily for us, whatever it was that possessed all of us to think back in 2007 that we can set up a 1-km tall racetrack (the first of its kind, ever) and race laser-powered kWatt scale vehicles up its length, it certainly was contagious. Over the course of the next 24 months, we were able to infect many other people with our dream and had them join our quest…  And so last month, the enlarged gang converged on NASA Dryden to hold the games – which were a spectacular success.

The video clip tries to capture the scope of the project, and is dedicated to everyone who helped make it happen.

(In my mind, Carmina Burana was always linked to light and motion. It was composed by Carl Orff in 1936, and I think it just rocks.)

There is still a large amount of video footage to be processed, but at this point it’s time to focus on the next round of the games. Bitter Jester Creative are now in the process of sorting through the full video archive from the games, and we’ll hear more from them, I am sure, sometime next year.

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

Next to “Why don’t you just use a balloon”, this has got to be the question that gives me the most heartburn.

Actually, let me correct that – the first question is a valid question, to which I have a valid answer – it’s the use of the “just” in front of the question that is the cause of agitation, since it implies a certain level of ease and simplicity, and hence an implied “why are you making this so complicated…” – but I digress.

Am I sure this is going to work? Of course not. Nobody is less surprised than I am when things that I build don’t work right off the bat. And by the same token, nobody is more surprised than I am when they do…  Really.

First, there are mistakes. In a perfect world, most are avoidable, but that does not mean they are indeed avoided. Second, there are unknowns. Some aspects of the system are too difficult to model or calculate, and so have to be tested out. Then there’s the human element, and finally there’s just luck. (In 2007 we got rained out, almost snowed out, in Salt Lake City…)

Our first test flight in June failed due to an engineering mistake. This was compounded somewhat by a human element issue that led us to believe that a different aspect of the system, which was being tested, actually worked well.

In our second test flight, we found out the hard way that this second aspect is actually not working well at all, and as a result had to fall back, regroup, and demonstrate we’ve solved all the issues.

We made major changes, which I’ve covered in previous posts, and went to perform test flights in Olympia, Washington. We’ve flown the 1 km vertical racetrack eight times now (8 successes out of 8 tries), and are pretty confident we’ve got it down. Yet we haven’t done it at Dryden, and perhaps we were only 8-times lucky…  I hope not!

The teams are also confident. Their task is more difficult than Spaceward’s. Just like with our vertical racetrack, they went through several design iterations in order to get their power beaming systems ready, and almost by definition, each iteration except possibly the last one ended in “failure”, or in other words – in figuring out something new.

Collectively, they have tested their systems horizontally, vertically, on test-stands and on treadmills. They beamed power to a kilometer, and extracted more than they need to win the 5 m/s prize money. They tracked model cars, people, bicycles, cars, ultra-lights, and even canoes. They simulated real runs. They think they’ve got it down. Yet none of them has climbed 1 km vertically.

So there. One week to go, and there are plenty of reasons to be confident. But are the teams already spending their prize money?  I hope not.

Stay tuned!

The power beaming games are now scheduled to be held on the week of 11/2 at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base near Mojave, CA.

The first two days of the week will be dedicated to set-up, testing, and calibrations, and the first competitive climb will take place on Wednesday, 11/4.

Each team will get one 45-minute climb window per day, and we will repeat the process over 3 days to make sure each team can achieve the best score they are capable of.

For media inquiries, please contact Alan Brown (alan.brown-1@nasa.gov)

This is going to be exciting. We are well rehearsed, having practiced setting up the 1-km vertical raceway 8 times now (with no problems), and seen one battery-powered climb to the top.  Still, there’s zero room for errors, and so my state of mind right now is “confident, but scared $%&^less”. As it should be, really – a lot is riding on getting this right.

This is the place to acknowledge NASA Centennial Challenges and NASA Dryden’s commitment to the games. As in any ground-breaking project, progress is not always smooth, and we appreciate the backing we’ve received.

In addition, we should acknowledge the backing we have from TRUMPF, the tremendous help we got from Northwest helicopters in Olympia, the guidance of Mackey International, Dynon avionics, and Bitter Jester Creative – we’ll get this done with a little help from our friends.

More details soon -

Ben

The flight ops crew (back to front) John Kelly, John Piatt, Mike Kapitzke

Taking off..

The Kelly Kage (TM) - when the two crosses align, Kelly knows he's looking straight up. The circle represents a 15-degree half-angle vertical cone.

Frangible link - body

Frangible link - pop-out disk, with swivel link below it

Things were going too good to be true until this point…  and when something is too good to be true, well, you know what happens.

The helicopter flight started off well, and we clearly took care of the problems we saw last time – the re-designed pulley was working very well, and the operation was proceeding smoothly.  We got through cable deployment ok, (though pull-out was still too fast) but then just as we were entering the station-keeping portion of the flight, the helicopter exited the prescribed “box” it was supposed to be in, and also dropped the tension to the point where we had slack forming on the ground.

The procedure at that point is for the winch operator to spool in the slack in a controlled manner (since the pilot cannot see how much slack is on the ground) but before Michael had a chance to do so, the helicopter picked up the tension too fast, causing a release of a safety device at the top of the cable. That “breakaway link” is placed at the top of the cable to ensure that in such a contingency the cable separates in a controlled manner.

Not what we wanted at all.

I attached two pictures of the two parts of the link, after they separated. As you can see, there are three leaf springs that hold a small disk (the small part) in place, so in order for the small disk to extract, it has to force the springs open. Since the unit is reusable (in contrast to a single-use break-away link, which actually breaks) we can replicate the pull to figure out the force that it separated at.

So, again, we’re delayed. We need to look into why the helicopter exited its box, and why tension was lost – a process which will likely take at least 4 weeks. At this early stage, the best and only advice I can give you is – stay tuned!  We’re working on it, this is very fixable, and we’ll be flying again soon.

Friday laser testing are going to go forward as planned, hope to have a better day than today was :)

Ben

Brian Turner and LCH's Lt. Heather Lehmann

USST's Mark Boots and Patrick Allen during the LCH inspection

LCH inspection went off without a hitch – with flying colors, actually. We now have KCSP, USST and LM 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).

So far so good – more soon.

This week is the final testing week, two weeks before the competition starts!  I’ll try to blog without falling back more than a day, but as experience shows, it is difficult sometimes to keep up. Luckily, Ted of SpaceElevatorBlog.com is here, so make sure you follow the action there as well – or just follow us on Twitter.

We have not yet activated the real-time live-cast console – this will only happen for the games in August.

This week’s schedule:

• Sunday - USST and KCSP are already on site, starting to commission their equipment
• Monday –  Laser Clearinghouse procedure rehearsal, hopefully some team inspection (at least USST, since they go out on the range first). LaserMotive via telecon. (Seattle is a much more reasonable place to be this time of year!)
• Tuesday – TRUMPF laser setup, USST and KCSP lasing, other U Alberta, U Michigan  arrival and LCH inspection. Tether system equipment staging, procedure rehearsal.
• Wednesday – Continued laser testing, Helicopter test dry run, Helicopter and crew arrival and briefing
• Thursday – Continued laser testing, Helicopter flights, battery-powered climber runs.
• Friday – Contingency day.

Stay Tuned!

A week has gone by, with no earth-shattering events, really.

Team USST took a good first step towards catching up on their qualification by doing some testing at TRUMPF. No news is good news in that respect.

Team NSS is also making good progress, and I hope that so do the other teams. (I’ll know more after Sunday’s weekly team telechat)

The engineering folks at Dryden started manufacturing the replacement pulley – it was quickest to create a steel pulley of the same dimensions than it was to try to start from scratch. The pulley should be ready this week, in time for testing and flight next week.

Based on the experience gained at the last test flight, we did a new walk-through of the procedures, and made quite a few modification.  The biggest one is that we’ll use a new cable for every helicopter flight. This saves us the time spent reeling it back in, and a new spool of cable is a lot cheaper than the 20-30 minutes of helicopter flight time it would have otherwise taken)

Because of schedule conflicts, the test flight was moved to the week of the 20th, so now laser testing and helicopter testing will happen concurrently. In another lesson learned, daily activities will begin at 5 am, to avoide the afternoon heat.   This is sure to test my limits…   I am not a morning person.

More soon.

Home Sweet Home

Flew to LA yesterday, meeting with Dryden’s John Kelly at Aris’s digs to go over the plans since the next test flight is 2 weeks away – again…

As I lifted my eyes from my screen and looked out the window, I could see the Hwy 5 – Hwy 99 intersection and the Grapevine service station before the mountain pass. Cool! I’ve driven this so many times I know the road by heart now, and the SJC-ONT flight route apparently pretty much overflies Hwy 5.

But wait!  If that’s Grapevine on the right, then the Hwy 138 turnoff should be just up the hill, with the road heading left towards Mojave… and the reservoir… yes!

I walk to the back of the plane where there’s an empty row on the left side, and peer out – sure enough, here’s the first lakebed (next to Edwards’ west gate) and right over the wing is the now-familiar shape of our lakebed. I can make out the Space Shuttle landing strip, the lakebed runways, and even compass rose.

Cool! I must have seen this white patch of sand 20 times before, but it never felt so much like home…

The picture, of course, just like all pictures out of a passenger seat in a jetliner, came out fuzzy and boring. But still I thought I’d share.

Happy Fourth!

Stress test week is now officially over. Overall, things went pretty much according to plan, except for the pulley glitch, which prevented us from completing the helicopter test flight. (and of course, this is WHY we test).  The upshot of stress test week is therefore as follows:

• The tether system has to be re-flown before we do the games. It is clear we have the basic principle right, but we need to do it perfectly before we can go live. In particular, we need to re-visit the pulley that failed, and either beef it up sufficiently, or put in something along the lines of a fairleads.
• By virtue of going through the procedures once, everyone’s gotten smarter and there are a number of improvements we’d like to add now – and these too need to be tested before the games.
• Kansas City Space Pirates completed the tests. LaserMotive is likely to complete them this coming week. We need to give USST a fair shot, and we’ll use that opportunity to give the rest of the teams another shot at completing their systems.

Juggling the schedules of  Dryden, TRUMPF’s team, Aris helicopters and Spaceward personnel, it’s a wonder we could even come up with a schedule that accommodates all the requirements:

• The helicopter re-fly will happen on the week of the original games, on Thursday 7/16 (with Friday as contingency)
• Laser testing round II will occur on the week after that – TRUMPF will fly in on Monday, set up to lase on Tuesday morning through Wednesday (with Thursday as contingency)
• The games will be held on the week of August 3rd – most likley running Wednesday thru Friday, with teams arriving either Monday morning or at the end of the previous week (still to be determined)

And, we’ll still be done just in time for the Space Elevator conference!