Image Gallery
(Mouse-over to pause and show descriptions)
START HERE
CURRENT STATUS (11/14)
Back home... We have a HUGE amount of pictures and videos to process, and many stories to tell - Stay Tuned!

ROUND 2: We've tentatively scheduled the "Grudge Match" for the remaining $1.1M (at 5 m/s) for May 10th, 2010.

More soon...

 
NOT THE WHOLE STORY
Please Note:

You are currently viewing only the post "LaserMotive – part 4".

View All Posts
FOLLOW
THE SPACE ELEVATOR BLOG
For the obvious reasons, I invariably get too busy to blog exactly when things get interesting...

For the latest word, and for a wider perspective on all things Space Elevator, you can alway turn to Ted Semon's most excellent Space Elevator Blog - www.SpaceElevatorBlog.com

OUR SPONSORS

The TRUMPF Group is one of the world's leaders in the field of production technology - machine tools, material processing, high power lasers, electronics and in medical technology.

TRUMPF took a natural interest in the Power Beaming challenge, and they are providing their 8 kWatt top-of-the-line laser system for use by teams KCSP, USST, U Michigan, and NSS.

Find out all about TRUMPF's laser systems at www.trumpf-laser.com

Mackey International is an aviation consulting firm specializing in aviation safety, risk management, accident investigation, air carrier certification and safety/compliance audits.

With Mackey's experience and expertise, Spaceward was able to put together an operations plan that satisfied the requirements of NASA's aviation safety review - not an easy feat given that a rotorcraft-tether configuration such as ours has never been flown before.

Find out all about Mackey International's capabilities at www.keithmackey.com

Bitter WHAT?! Exactly. This is what Nic DeGrazia, Creative Director of Bitter Jester Creative, told me about their company's name. Nobody ever forgets it.

The same is true about BJC's work. Winners of Telly and Hermes awards, their work brings out the human element in every story.

BJC are continuing their 2-year project of documenting the games, now in its third year. Find out all about them at www.BitterJester.com

Dynon Avionics designs, manufactures and distributes a growing line of affordable glass cockpit avionics. Operated by aviation enthusiasts, Dynon utilizes the very latest state-of-the-art technologies to create modern avionics products with an emphasis on lowering prices and enhancing reliability.

For the games, we had to assemble a special helicopter station-keeping system that will allow the pilots to position the helicopter accurately even when flying at 4300' AGL. Dynon components were our first choice, and are doing the job beautifully.

Find out more at www.dynonavionics.com

Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 146,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.

Find out more at www.LockheedMartin.com

Since its inception in 1962, OMEGA has grown from manufacturing a single product line of thermocouples to an established global leader in the technical marketplace, offering more than 100,000 state-of-the-art products for measurement and control of temperature, humidity, pressure, strain, force, flow, level, pH and conductivity. OMEGA also provides customers with a complete line of data acquisition, electric heating and custom engineered products.

Omega has been sponsoring the games with various equipment such as large format displays and load cells since 2006.

Find out more at www.omega.com

SPIE is an international membership society, serving scientists and engineers in industry, academia, and government, as well as companies producing leading-edge products. SPIE constituents work in a wide variety of fields that utilize some aspect of optics and photonics, which is the science and application of light. More specifically, optics is a branch of physics that examines the behavior and properties of light and the interaction of light with matter. Photonics is the science and technology of generating, controlling, and detecting photons, which are particles of light.

Find out more at www.spie.org

LEARN MORE
WE CAN REALLY USE YOUR HELP

While NASA sponsors the $4M prize purse, Spaceward does not receive any of it - we fund our operations from donations and sponsorships from people like you.

Our sponsors and donors are people who believe in the infinite promise (and cool factor) of the Space Elevator, and would like to be associated with it and help in its development.

You can see the media impact we've had to date here, and with our NASA TV coverage this year (available on DirecTV #238) and our livecast we will reach millions of people with our (and your) message.

To see the impact we've had on technology education, our best advertisements are our student teams, who started out as curious high-schoolers and undergrads, and by now have built cutting-edge photonics systems worthy of NASA itself!


$¥
Total raised so far: $625 - THANK YOU!
SITE NAV
KILROY WAS HERE
free counters
VERY FUNNY
LATEST NEWS

LaserMotive – part 4

PERMALINK Filed under: LM, Team Specific, Timeline — CrazyEddieBlogger on June 29, 2009, 5:50 pm
Climber Melt Test

Climber Melt Test

Monitoring the climber temperature

Monitoring the climber temperature

 

The next test is the Climber Melt Test.

If you recall, this is the test where the climber is illuminated at 100% power for the full climb duration (plus margin), and we confirm that it can take the heat. We also look at the amount of power produced by the climber, to confirm that it is sufficient to move it up the cable at competitive speeds.

A few posts ago I described how KCSP embellished on this test by designing a beam operated R/C car that that carried the PV panel on its tail

The LM setup is more conventional, and while it does not provide a complete end-to-end functionality test, it allows for much better analysis of what’s going on while beaming. The climber is mounted on a vertical stand, with a 45-degree mirror underneath, and the horizontal beam is bounced onto its underside. The test stand can also be used as a vertical treadmill, but this test is not part of our standard test suite. A ducted blower give the climber the air cooling and aerodynamic loading it would have gotten during a real run. (Air cooling is allowed in the games, even though it is not representative of real space conditions)

The first image shows the climber being hit by the beam (notice how little light is reflected out, even in this point-blank image).

The second image shows how LM track the temperature of the climber – an IR imager for locating hot spots, an IR thermometer for getting an average readout of the front side of the panel, and thermocouples embedded on the back side of the panel.

During this test we also get to see how much power they are able to extract, and just like KCSP, these guys are confident in their performance.

Only I know the comparable performance metrics, but I’m not telling!


NOT THE WHOLE STORY
Please Note:

You are currently viewing only the post "LaserMotive – part 4".

View All Posts