Friday, October 30, 2009

Space Pirates

SO I guess the scientific community has been discussing for a long time how cool it would be to build an elevator into space. With no more need for expensive rocket fuel to launch rockets, it could really open up space for exploration like never before. NASA's theory is you'd attach a cable to the equator and it would extend all the way into space, but then someone needs to come up with a way to get supplies up and down this cable.... thus, the elevator. This has been on NASA's back burner... it would be very expensive to develop the technology to create this elevator. (I'm sure someone with a lot more knowledge of science will find something wrong with my summary, but I think it's pretty close... Google "Space Elevator" if you want to know more.)

So... for the fourth time ever, NASA is hosting the Space Elevator Games. It's a way to recruit some of the best minds in the country to all work to find a way to make the elevator a reality. There are only three teams left in the country competing in the games next week, and a team from Kansas City is one of them! It was really cool meeting our local team, the KC Space Pirates. They've all got day jobs.. they're the only team in this race that is just doing this for fun... and if they win, NASA will give them two million dollars!!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE STORY

1 comment:

Robert Zamees said...

I was just talking Space Elevator earlier this week in the spacevidcast chat room while watching Ares 1-X d... e... l... a... y... s. Good story!