NASA with its partner the Spaceward Foundation announced yesterday the first First Centennial Challenges Prizes.
This is quite exciting as the first prizes deal directly with technologies required for a space elevator. And as some of you may know I've been a proponent of the Space Elevator concept for some time and created the Space Elevator Reference. The first two prizes are as follows;
The Tether Challenge centers on the creation of a material that combines light weight and incredible strength. Under this challenge, teams will develop high strength materials that will be stretched in a head-to-head competition to see which tether is strongest.
The Beam Power challenge focuses on the development of wireless power technologies for a wide range of exploration purposes, such as human lunar exploration and long-duration Mars reconnaissance. In this challenge, teams will develop wireless power transmission systems, including transmitters and receivers, to power robotic climbers to lift the greatest weight possible to the top of a 50-meter cable in under three minutes.
The prizes total $400,000 over two years for four prizes.
The winners of each initial 2005 challenge will receive $50,000. A second set of Tether and Beam Power challenges in 2006 are more technically challenging. Each challenge will award purses of $100,000, $40,000, and $10,000 for first, second, and third place.