July 31, 2007

Light Racers

This announcement came in the email today, from the Spaceward Foundation:

The Spaceward Foundation opened registration today for the 2007 Great Light Racer Championship.

The Light Racers Championship, a space technology competition, challenges kids, young adults and grown ups to design, build, and race beam-powered lunar rovers that could help NASA get to the ice deposits located in the permanently shadowed craters of the lunar poles.

Total prize purse this year is $10,000.


For the Light Racers, teams build and remotely control vehicles that capture a beam of light (from a spotlight) and convert that energy into power to navigate a course. There are both hard-surface road courses, for speed, and an off-road course with obstacles. There are no batteries or fuel carried, all power is supplied by the lightbeam. More details are here.

This is the same foundation that sponsors the Space Elevator Games, which is its own special brand of coolness.

Posted by Ted at July 31, 2007 05:54 AM
Category: SciTech
Comments

I enjoyed last years space elvators competition alot. I think this new competition is forward thinking is great in advancing space exploration. It is also great because it educated the public, kids, parents and helps to build community spirit and ultimately advances technology. The finals will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah on October 19 - October 21, 2007. I look forward to it.

Posted by: chakali at August 9, 2007 03:18 PM
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