Elevator: 2010 Competition:
The Elevator: 2010 Competition is part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges program, which is intended to stimulate innovation and competition in solar system exploration and ongoing NASA mission areas. The Elevator: 2010 competition is designed to accelerate the development of the technologies needed in building a Space Elevator by creating a set of competitions that focus engineering talent on the basic components of the Space Elevator system: super-strong tethers and high efficiency power beaming.

On March 23, 2005, NASA and the Spaceward Foundation signed a $400,000 agreement providing prize money for competitions run by the Spaceward Foundation under the Elevator: 2010 project. In October of 2005, the inaugural Elevator: 2010 competition took place in Mountain View, California. Although no team was able to complete the competition within the competitions regulations, the University of Saskatchewan Space Design Team placed first in the Climber Competition.

On October 1, 2006, just a few weeks prior to the 2nd annual Elevator: 2010 Competition, NASA announced that they were increasing the prize purse ten-fold, to 4 million dollars over the five years.

The second annual Elevator: 2010 Competition took place October 19-21, 2006, in Las Cruces NM at the Wirefly X-Prize Cup. For the second consecutive year, the University of Saskatchewan Space Design Team out performed the competing teams to place first in the Climber Competition. Although placing first, the USST’s climber ascended 0.04 m/s to slow to claim the prize purse of $150,000. This prize was added to the 2007 competitions prize purse, increasing it to $500,000.

In 2007 the difficulty increased dramatically. Instead of a 60m ribbon it was increased to a 100m ribbon at 2 m/s. The USST was one of two teams to enter a laser powered climber complete with automated tracking system and climber to ground communication. Unfortunately the USST fell just short of claiming the prize money climbing the ribbon in 1.8m/s. Still it was a huge success for the USST as they set records for laser power beaming and demonstrated the use of a complex laser system.