Going up? Teams compete for top prize in space elevator contest
Nasa and Spaceward will award $2m (£1.2m) to a team that can send a lift a half mile into the skyNext stop: Space. Going up? Some engineers, science fiction writers and scientists say the future of space travel lies not in rockets and reusable spacecraft but in electrically powered elevators tethered to cables reaching tens of thousands of miles into space that can deliver huge payloads and groups of people.To jump start development, Nasa and Spaceward, a private foundation, this week hold a $2m (£1.2m) competition to prove the concept, offering a prize to the team that can send an elevator just over half a mile into the sky at an average speed of 5 metres (16.4 ft) per second, on a cable suspended from a helicopter. The climb must be powered by a high powered ground-based light or laser aimed at a cell facing earth, a concept known as...
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