November 5, 2009
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) — A laser-powered robot failed to complete its climb up a long cable dangling from a helicopter Wednesday in a $2 million competition to test the potential reality of space elevators.
The contest brought teams from Missouri, Alaska and Seattle to Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert. It requires their machines to climb up a cable slung beneath a helicopter hovering nearly a mile high.
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