EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) _ Rocketing off to space?
Some think an elevator might be the way to go.
The so-called space elevator is the future goal of this week's
$2 million Space Elevator Games in the Mojave Desert.
In a major test of the concept, robotic machines powered by
laser beams will try to climb a cable suspended from a helicopter
hovering more than a half-mile (one kilometer) high at Edwards Air
Force Base.
Several teams have qualified to participate in the event
beginning Wednesday on the dry lakebed near NASA's Dryden Flight
Research Center at Edwards.
Funded by a space agency program to explore bold technology, the
contest is a step toward bringing the idea of a space elevator out
of the realm of science fiction and into reality.
