Space elevator competitions
Space elevator challenge results

Space elevator competitions

Section Title: Space elevator challenge results
Table Section Text: None

Competition	Type	Prize	Target	Date	Location	Entries	Winner?	Records	Comments

X Prize Cup	Climber	Aug 2005	NASA AMES, Mtn Vw, CA, USA	no

Tether	Aug 2005	NASA AMES, Mtn Vw, CA, USA	no	Centaurus: 1300 Lbs (2 gr, 2 m)

2nd Annual X Prize Cup	Climber	$200K	50 m, 1 m/s (climb + descend)	Oct 2006	Las Cruces, NM, USA	6 (USST, LiteWon, TurboCrawler, Climber 1, KC Space Pirates, Snowstar)	no	USST: 1 m/s climbing	10 cm ribbon, searchlights for power

Lander	???	take off, hover, land	Oct 2006	Las Cruces, NM, USA	none	no

Tether	$200K	Max Strength (min len 2 m, max wt 2 g)	Oct 2006	Las Cruces, NM, USA	4 (UBC, Astroaraneae, Centaurus Aerospace, Bryan Laubscher)	no	Astroaraneae: 1335 Lbs (2 gr, 2m)

Space Elevator Games	Climber	$500K	100 m, 2 m/s	Oct 2007	Salt Lake City, UT, USA	(USST, KC Space Pirates, LaserMotive)	no	USST: First laser powered climb; 1.8 m/s climbing	First lasers for power

Tether	$500K	Oct 2007	Salt Lake City, UT, USA	Astroaraneae, Delta x (MIT)	no	Astroaraneae: ???

2009 Space Elevator Challenge	Climber	$1.1M 5 m/s $.9M 2 m/s	900 m, 5 m/s or 2 m/s	Oct 2009	NASA Dryden FRC, Edwards Air Force Base, California, U.S.	6 (USST, KC Space Pirates, LaserMotive, Umich, McGill, NSS)	yes	LaserMotive won 900K for their climber, which reached speeds of 3.6 m/s

Tether	$2 M	Oct 2009	NASA Dryden FRC, Edwards Air Force Base, California, U.S.	no	First carbon nanotube

JSETEC 2010	Climber	300 m	Aug 2010	Mt. Fuji, Shizuoka-ken, Japan	15 teams (USST, Kanagawa U., Nihon U., Shizuoka U.)	yes	Kanagawa University was top finisher; USST reached 18.3 m/s (battery-powered) before crashing

2011 Strong Tether Centennial Challenge	Tether	5 MYuris	12 August 2011	Redmond, WA, USA	no

JSETEC 2011	Climber	Aug 2011	Mt. Fuji, Shizuoka-ken, Japan	16	530 m in 39 s, 450 m in 27 s

EUSPEC 2011	Climber	25 m	Aug 2011	TU Munich, Germany	6	yes	Efficiency: 43.85%	Either rope or belt tethers

JSETEC 2012	Climber	1200 m	Aug 2012	Mt. Fuji, Shizuoka-ken, Japan	16	no	No one climbed 1200 m	Either rope or belt tethers

EUSPEC 2012	Climber	50 m	Oct 2012	TU Munich, Germany	6	yes	Either rope or belt tethers

JSEA 2013	Climber	1200 m	Aug 2013	Mt. Fuji, Shizuoka-ken, Japan	Okusawa, Nihon U	1200 m

TechnoBrain 2014	Climber	10,000 NIS	25 m	June 2014	Technion, Israel	Ishai Zimerman and Ronen Atzil	yes	Yuri Artsutanov, who developed the concept of the "space elevator", was the guest of honor and one of the judges of the competition

SPEC 2014	Climber	1200 m and 200 m	August 2014	Japan	Team Keio & Manten Project, Team Okuzawa, Kanagawa University Egami Ken, Technical University Munich	no	Team Okusawa climbed two round trips to 1200 m ; Kanagawa University climbed 123 m on the 200 m rope with a 100 kg payload	Both rope (11 mm) and ribbons (35 mm x 2 mm) were available at each altitude, held aloft by balloons.

EUSPEC 2016	Climber	100 m and 50 m	September 2016	Germany	Aoki Lab (Nihon University); Last.minute (TUM); Space Group Hof (Schiller Gymnasium); Meier's Eleven (Gutenbergschule Wiesbaden);	Both rope (10 mm) and belt (30-40 mm x 2 mm) were available, held aloft by balloons.

Sentence(s)

Kanagawa University carried a 100 kg payload to 123 m on the 200 m.

final_sentence: Kanagawa University carried a 100 kg payload to 123 m on the 200 m.