Light Racers Thrill Crowds while no one Wins the 2007 Tether Challenge

The news of the afternoon at the Spaceward Games was that no one won this years version of the NASA sponsored tether challenge. The two teams competing this year for the $500,000 prize were MIT and Astroaraneae (Space Spiders). The format had them going head to head first to see whose tether would break first. It was no match, the MIT tether came apart practically at the get go. This was because it was not a continuous tether, but rather was tied at one end in a knot. Having beat MIT, Astroaraneae decided not to compete against the house tether as they felt they could not beat them this year. However with continued improvements in their manufacturing process they feel they would have a chance to win next year.

Also today was the Great Light-Racer Championship. Aimed at students, the teams compete in solving a real NASA lunar exploration problem: building a rover that can operate in a permanently shadowed area of the moon. Several teams competed and at last report at least one team won some of the prize money. More details and pictures will be available later.