Elevator:2010 was an inducement prize contest with the purpose of developing space elevator and space elevator-related technologies. Elevator:2010 organized annual competitions for climbers, ribbons and power-beaming systems, and was operated by a partnership between Spaceward Foundation and the NASA Centennial Challenges.
On March 23, 2005 NASA's Centennial Challenges program announced a partnership with the Spaceward Foundation regarding Elevator:2010, to raise the amounts of monetary prizes and to get more teams involved in the competitions.[1] The partnership was not renewed after its initial 5-year term.[2]
There were two (out of an intended seven) competitions of the NASA Centennial Challenges which fell under the Elevator:2010 banner: The Tether Challenge and the Beam Power Challenge. There were also the two original competitions.
This competition presented the challenge of constructing super-strong tethers, a crucial component of a space elevator.[3] The 2005 contest was to award US$50,000 to the team which constructed the strongest tether, with contests in future years requiring that each winner outperform that of the previous year by 50%. No competing tether surpassed the commercial off-the-shelf baseline and the prize was increased to $200,000 in 2006.
Of the four teams competing, three were disqualified for not following length rules—one of these cases by a fraction of a millimeter. Ultimately, the 'House Tether' won against the remaining team. The 'House Tether' is composed of Zylon fiber and M77 adhesive.[4] It was stronger than the machine used to test the tether itself: it began to fail at 1600lbf, forcing the test to be called off.
The Beam Power Challenge was a competition to build a wirelessly-powered ribbon-climbing robot. The contest involves having the robot raise a specified payload to a specific height within a limited period of time. The first competition in 2005 would have awarded, US$20,000, and US$10,000 to the three best-performing teams meeting the minimum benchmark of . However no team met the minimum standard in 2005.
In 2006 the prize for first place increased to $150,000 with the goal of climbing 50 meters in under 1 minute. It was held October 20–21, 2006 at the Las Cruces International Airport at the Wirefly X PRIZE Cup. 13 teams entered the competition. Only one team, University of Saskatchewan, was able to climb the tether in under 1 minute, reaching the top in .
The Challenge had $500,000 in prize money for the 2007 competition.
At the 2009 Challenge, on November 6, 2009, LaserMotive successfully used lasers to drive a NaN4.8 device up a NaNfeet900NaNfeetft (900ft) cable suspended from a helicopter.[5] Energy is transmitted to the climber using a high-power infrared beam.[6] LaserMotive's entry, which was the only climber to top the cable, reached an average speed of 13km/h and earned a $900,000 prize. This marked both a performance record, and the first award of a cash prize at the Challenge.[7]
LaserMotive won the prize for the Level 1 power beaming prize in 2009 with the achievement of climber speed over a sub-kilometer climb. The Level 2 power beaming prize, for a climb, remains available for future competitions.
After LaserMotive claimed the prize for the Level 1 power beaming prize in 2009, the Space Elevator games being conducted by Elevator:2010 planned to offer a prize purse for future competitions of, for both the Power Beaming (Climber) Competition and the Tether Strength Competition.[8]
The Japan Space Elevator Association conducted climbing competitions[9] in August 2013.