2009 Strong Tether Competition Results

The 2009 Tether Strength Competition was held yesterday at the 2009 Space Elevator Conference. Of course there are many other potential uses for very strong tethers beyond space elevators, but the vision of the competition is the space elevator. There was one competing team, going up against the "house tether". This time the house tether won. The Space Elevator Blog has a nice 2-part summary and photo collection of the competition:

Space Elevator Games - Strong Tether competition is imminent

The 2009 Tether Competition

You can get a view of the whole conference from various twitter accounts using #SE09. Check the posts over Friday if you want to read Tether Competition content. Some prominent accounts:

@mlaine - Michael J. Laine
@jeff_foust - Jeff Foust
@spaceelevator - Space Elevator Reference - Marc Boucher
@segames - Official tweets from the Space Elevator Games

Here are some more pictures from the event:

@jeff_foust: http://twitpic.com/dvjn7 - removing the tether from its packaging to prepare it for the competition. #SE09
2spaceelevator: Getting the Japanese tether ready for the strong tether competition #SE09 http://yfrog.com/08v2tj
@jeff_foust: http://twitpic.com/dvkc4 - presenting the carbon nanotube tether. #SE09
@jeff_foust: http://twitpic.com/dvlqe - setting up a practice tether for a test. #SE09
@jeff_foust: http://twitpic.com/dvngd - the aftermath of the practice tether. Waiting for the real competition to begin. #SE09
@jeff_foust: http://twitpic.com/dvovu - installing the competition tether. #SE09
@jeff_foust: http://twitpic.com/dvpu7 - tether snapped almost immediately after tension was applied. A disappointment. #SE09
@spaceelevator: The Japanese tether did not last long but Shelef says this is not a true measure of it's strength #SE09 http://yfrog.com/7bsukj
@jeff_foust: http://twitpic.com/dvsrh - the tether after the competition. #SE09.

Plus, here's a video from Jeff Foust:

@jeff_foust: A brief video I shot of the tether strength challenge: http://is.gd/2h59p #SE09

There were some other interesting tweats from the event that weren't really about the tether competition itself:

@spaceelevator: Next session is NASA Centennial Challenges with,Andrew Petro and Andrew Jones #SE09
@spaceelevator: @Doug_Comstock from @NASA is here as well. Doug is the Director of NASA's Innovative Partnerships Program. #SE09
@jeff_foust: Petro: soliciting ideas for new prize competitions within NASA now, will reach out to public "any day now". #SE09
@mlaine: Looking for new prize topics - Send your ideas! get involved if you have an idea for innovation + space. $250-2M range. #SE09

The Tether Competition isn't the only one that happened recently with a Space Elevator theme. The Space Elevator Blog reports: Results from the Japan Space Elevator Games (held by the Japan Space Elevator Association)

CNN Money.com has a review of the games and teams:

Steps toward space: This features 4 Space Elevator teams: The Kansas City Space Pirates, USST, Delta X, and LaserMotive (Delta X is a tether team; the others are beam power teams).

Space elevator chase yields Earthly rewards