Space Elevator money goes begging for another year

A competition I didn't even know existed is over for another year - the Wirefly X Prize Cup. Technically the X Prize Cup is a series of competitions aimed at dangling prize money in front of people to motivate private enterprise and academics to move forward in space development and exploration because governments' have dropped the ball. The most famous X Prize was the sub-orbital space flight one, which has led to the creation of companies such as Virgin Galactic (to name just one).

Anyway, this particular competition involved powering climbers up a light-weight tether (and I mean lightweight - under 3 grams!) using either laser power or spot lights. There was also a speed competition, but apparently there was a snafu with the length of the tether (no one could work out if it was 50m or 60m), so that money went begging too.

$200,000 of NASA's money safe for another year.

I love the XPrize concept. It motivates people to work just a little bit harder towards goals they might have worked towards anyway, and it's all in the name of shifting us off the surface and actually moving forward rather than stagnating and focusing on petty terrestial interests like stealth satellites, missile defence systems and claiming ownership over bits of rock that should belong to everyone anyway.

Although no one won the dough this year, I like to think that the future of the space elevator is in good hands.

Interesting links:
Elevator 2010 - a project of the Spaceward Foundation
The Space Elevator Blog
The Space Elevator Reference