Space elevator team wins $900,000 from NASA

LaserMotive takes prize in Power Beaming Challenge; more cash left to win

A Seattle-based team has won $900,000 in this year's Space Elevator Games, a NASA-sponsored contest to build machines powered by laser beams that can climb a cable in the sky.

The homemade cable-climber built by the LaserMotive team climbed a 3,000-foot (900-meter) tether suspended by a helicopter at a speed of 8 mph (3.7 meters per second or 13 kilometers per hour) during a Wednesday attempt.

LaserMotive's robot climber managed to get all the way up the cable four times in two days, with a best time of about 3 minutes and 48 seconds (translating to a speed of 3.9 meters per second).