Aug.

28, 2007

David E. Steitz/Stephanie Schierholz

Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1730/4997
david.steitz@nasa.gov, stephanie.schierholz@nasa.gov

Ted Semon
Spaceward Foundation, Mountain View, Calif.
650-969-2010
ted@spaceward.org

RELEASE: 07-182

NASA'S CENTENNIAL CHALLENGES TO ADVANCE TECHNOLOGIES

WASHINGTON - From Oct. 19 to 21, more than 20 teams from across the
nation and around the world will compete for a total of $1,000,000
from NASA for the development of cutting-edge technologies. The Beam
Power Challenge and Tether Challenge, two of NASA's seven Centennial
Challenges, will take place at the 2007 Space Elevator Games at the
Davis County Event Center in Salt Lake City.

"The innovations from these competitions will help support advances in

aerospace materials and structures, new approaches to robotic and
human planetary surface operations, and even futuristic concepts,"
said Ken Davidian, program manager for NASA's Centennial Challenges,
Headquarters, Washington.

The Spaceward Foundation is conducting the challenges as part of the

Space Elevator Games at no cost to NASA.

The Beam Power Challenge promotes the development of new power

distribution technologies that can be applied to space exploration.
This competition requires teams to design and build a climber machine
that can travel up and down a ribbon while carrying a payload. Power
will be beamed from a transmitter to a receiver on the climber. Each
climber must scale a height of approximately 330 feet traveling at a
minimum speed of 2 meters per second. As many as three teams with the
highest qualifying scores could win the competition and share the
$500,000 purse. Technologies demonstrated in this competition could
have applications for future planetary surface operation with robots
or humans.

The purpose of the Tether Challenge is to develop very strong,

lightweight material. Super-strong tethers could enable advances in
aerospace capability, including rocket weight reduction, habitable
space structures, solar sails, or tether-based propulsion systems.
The challenge will be conducted in two rounds that test the strength
of each team's tether. As many as three teams could share the
$500,000 prize. The winners must demonstrate a technology at least 50
percent stronger than a baseline, state-of-the-art tether that uses
off-the-shelf materials.

The space elevator is an Earth-to-space transportation system proposed

in the 1960s and enhanced in 2000 by Dr. Bradley Edwards of Los
Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The system is comprised of
a stationary cable moving in unison with the Earth, with one end
anchored to the surface of the planet and the other in space.
Electric cars then would travel up and down the cable, carrying cargo
and people.

For more information about the competitions, visit:

http://www.spaceward.org

Centennial Challenges, an element of NASA's Innovative Partnerships

Program, promotes technical innovation through prize competitions to
make revolutionary advances to support NASA's mission, including the
return to the moon and journey to Mars. For more information about
the Innovative Partnerships Program and Centennial Challenges, visit:

http://www.ipp.nasa.gov/cc

-end-