MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., July 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Spaceward
 Foundation announced today the venue and timing for its annual Space
 Elevator games.
     The event will be held at the Davis County Event Center just outside of
 Salt Lake City, Utah. The qualifying rounds will start on October 15, and
 the event will be open to the public between October 19 and October 21.
     The Space Elevator competitions, marking their third year running, will
 feature more than 20 teams from around the country and the world, vying for
 $1,000,000 in cash prizes provided by NASA's Centennial Challenges program.
     "The Utah Governor's Office of Economic Development is thrilled to have
 the Spaceward Games in Utah this year," said Gary Harter, Managing Director
 of Business Creation there. Barbara Riddle, director of the Davis area
 conventions shared his enthusiasm.
     This year will feature a new technology competition -- "Light Racers"
 -- that allows kids and young adults to take part in a realistic lunar
 exploration scenario and win cash prizes for their performance. The
 competition is open to school, family, and grown-up teams. The Light Racers
 also serve as a science education platform for teaching basic science and
 math topics.
     Meekk Shelef, president of the Spaceward Foundation: "We are thrilled
 to have added an educational component where kids can take part in the
 competition. Reaching out to the scientists and engineers of the future is
 the most important thing we can do."
     The Space Elevator games concentrate on two far-reaching technology
 concepts that will enable NASA to enhance its space program -- power
 beaming for wireless power transfer, and Nano-materials such as Carbon
 Nanotubes for strong structures.
     Ken Davidian, program manager for Centennial Challenges: "I am excited
 and impressed with the evolution and level of technical maturity
 demonstrated by the teams in both the Tether and Beam Power Challenges.
 Over the past 24 months, individual teams started from scratch, have grown
 continually, have coalesced into communities, and are on the verge of
 accomplishing substantial achievements worthy of a Centennial Challenges
 prize."
     Dr. Bradley C Edwards, the leading Space Elevator researcher and
 science advisor to the games: "The Space Elevator games, with their
 emphasis on strong tethers and power beaming, represent the road to
 building the Space Elevator. We hope their cumulative effect on the
 engineering community will enable further effort in this direction."
     "From what we've seen of the teams so far, we're looking forward to an
 exciting race to the finish this year," said Ben Shelef, CEO of the
 Spaceward Foundation. "Third year's a charm -- we expect to be able to
 award the prize purse this year."
     The Space Elevator is a revolutionary Earth-to-Space transportation
 system proposed in 1960 by Yuri Artsutanov and enhanced in 2000 by Dr.
 Bradley Edwards, then at Los Alamos National Labs. The system is comprised
 of a stationary cable rotating in unison with the Earth, with one end
 anchored to the surface of the planet and the other end in space. Electric
 cars then travel up and down the cable, carrying cargo and people.
     For more information on the competitions, visit:
 http://www.spaceward.org, email ted@spaceward.org, or call (630) 240-4797.
     Press resources are located at
 http://www.spaceward.org/press/PR-2007-001.html.
     The Spaceward Foundation is a public-funds non-profit organization
 dedicated to furthering space science and technology in the public
 mindshare and in educational curriculums. We believe that expanding
 mankind's habitat is essential to its survival, and that the most effective
 way to induce long- term change is through education.
 
 

SOURCE Spaceward Foundation