In a few weeks, scientists from across the world will gather in the New Mexico desert to compete for one of the strangest -- and most ambitious -- technological competitions ever devised.
Some researchers will unveil robots, powered by solar panels, that will climb long lengths of cable. Others will demonstrate materials so light and strong that kilometer-long stretches of the stuff could be hung in the air without snapping.
And some will highlight their plans to launch satellites carrying sets of mini-probes tethered together, to discover how they behave in space.
All these different projects are united by one extraordinary goal: to build a stairway to heaven. Each of the groups that will gather in New Mexico is competing to win a NASA prize set up to encourage entrepreneurs to start development work on the technology needed to create a space elevator.
Such a device would involve constructing a 37,000km cable that could pull men and goods into orbit without blasting them there on top of expensive, and dangerous, rockets.
"I think there are going to be lots of people that rise to this challenge," said Michael Laine, president of the Washington-based company LiftPort, which will take part in the competition. "We're at the beginning of something really great."
The key feature of a space elevator would be the use of a satellite that will orbit almost 37,000km above Earth. At this altitude, known as geostationary orbit, the orbital period of a satellite moving around the globe matches Earth's rotation. The craft then hovers over a single spot on the equator.
However, a space elevator would have one extra key feature: a massive cable would be lowered from it to link it to the ground where it would remain fixed, like a tube line to the stars.
It sounds like science fiction. And indeed for the past 30 years that is how most people have viewed the concept of a space elevator, after the idea -- originally put forward by the Russian scientist Yuri Artsutanov in 1960 -- was made famous by Arthur C. Clarke in his 1978 novel, The Fountains of Paradise.
At the time the book's ideas were praised for their soundness, though scientists noted that the incredibly strong materials needed to build a space elevator were well beyond the technology of the day.
But science has made enormous advances since 1978, particularly in the development of incredibly light but strong substances that could be used to construct the space elevator cable.
In particular, the development of carbon nanotubes -- made of highly robust webs of carbon atoms -- have raised the promise that a space elevator may one day become reality.
And for NASA that cannot come a moment too soon. Despite decades of putting rockets into space, the agency has never managed to make any real reductions in launch costs in that time. Hence its decision to back a competition to stimulate space elevator technology.
"With a space elevator, NASA could build probes that they weren't able to do before; they could do new research on different applications of the space elevator," said Bradley Edwards, an entrepreneur who played a key role in helping to set up the space elevator competition.
Several US companies and groups of university researchers, plus Canadian, German and Spanish scientists, have promised to bring their devices and put them through their paces at next month's space elevator competition.
Prizes will be worth more than US$400,000 in total, including one for a robot that will have to climb a 60m cable powered only by photovoltaic cells.
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
FLYBY: The object, appears to be traveling more than 60 kilometers per second, meaning it is not bound by the sun’s orbit, astronomers studying 3I/Atlas said Astronomers on Wednesday confirmed the discovery of an interstellar object racing through the solar system — only the third-ever spotted, although scientists suspect many more might slip past unnoticed. The visitor from the stars, designated 3I/Atlas, is likely the largest yet detected, and has been classified as a comet, or cosmic snowball. “It looks kind of fuzzy,” said Peter Veres, an astronomer with the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, which was responsible for the official confirmation. “It seems that there is some gas around it, and I think one or two telescopes reported a very short tail.” Originally known as A11pl3Z before
RSS