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A new collaborative Space Elevator Reference site was born today and the previous site, this one, is now the Space Elevator Blog.

The Space Elevator Reference is now running on the open source MindTouch Deki platform allowing us to create an incredible rich wiki mashup service.

With the new site we're launching the Space Elevator Open Wiki and the Space Elevator Developer Wiki.

Each wiki has the latest and best collaborative wiki mashup tools available including:

• Document creation and live multi-developer editing
• Spreadsheet creation and live multi-developer editing
• Whiteboards
• Chat
• Math, Graphviz extensions and access to more than 100 web-services to dozens of providers pre-configured, including: Microsoft Windows Live, Amazon, Google, Yahoo, Widgetbox etc.

It's up to you to take the Space Elevator from concept to reality so join the Space Elevator Reference now.

Sir Arthur C. Clarke will be 90 years old on Sunday, December 16. Here is a video he did on December the 5th reflecting on his 90 years. And Happy Birthday Sir Arthur!

This past week Eurospaceward held a workshop to discuss the construction of climbers and tethers for competition. This is the first of its kind and was held in Europe to encourage participation by our colleagues there. The conference was generously supported by the National Research Fund of Luxembourg.

There were approximately 50 attendees from all over Europe, the U.S., Canada and Japan. The talks covered specifics of what was successful at the recent games and where issues arose in the entries, plans for the 2008 games and discussions of the rapid development of carbon nanotubes which are widely expected to be the material to beat at the games in the future. ...

I've selected some of my better images taken at this years 2007 Spaceward Games to create The Space Elevator 2008 Calendar. I hope you enjoy it, orders yours today.

• Each page measures 11" x 8.5"
• Measures 11" x 17" when hung on wall
• Full bleed dynamic color
• 100 lb cover weight high gloss paper, wire-o bound
• January 2008 - December 2008, 2009 preview, US holidays marked

Ted Semon reports on the Space Elevator Blog that no team successfully climbed the ribbon in the alloted time today, although once again this year, the University of Saskatchewan came within seconds of winning the NASA sponsored Power Beaming challenge. Technology Tycoons and the Kansas City Space Pirates also tried but came up short today.

With no team winning the tether challenge either, next years events look to be even more exciting.

• Sunday, October 21, 2007 - Evening competition gallery.

This evening the University of Saskatchewan climbed the 400 foot ribbon in spurts tonight nearing the top but not quite making it and taking quite a bit of time in doing so. They feel they've identified the problem and will try to fix it before they try to win it all tomorrow. Team E-T-C tried to climb the ribbon again tonight as well but had more troubles and failed to make it up.

Tomorrow, which is an unscheduled added day to the competition due to weather problems, the four finalist will try one more time to climb the 400 foot ribbon in less than a minute and have controlled descent. Should anyone succeed they would win the $500,000 prize.

Unfortunately I will not be able to cover tomorrow's event as I must return back home. However I will post updates tomorrow evening including some additional images and video from this evenings competition.

Three of the four finalists have had an opportunity to try and win the NASA sponsored Power Beaming challenge here at the Spaceward Games. However none have met the criteria to win. The Kansas City Space Pirates came the closest. UBC is done competing while the Kansas City Space Pirates had their climber severely damaged on the way down the climber aren't sure if they can continue competing but they are trying to make repairs. The Technology Tycoons are just waiting for another opportunity to try and win it all. However before they can try again the laser powered University of Saskatchewan team still has to make their first attempt. With the winds picking up the competition is on gold until around 7:00 pm when the University of Saskatchewan will get their first attempt in.

New videos have been added to our video channel including the Technology Tycoons first attempt today and a video of yesterdays tether challenge.

The Kansas City Space Pirates came close to having a climb that would be considered a winning climb however they ran over the alloted time by approximately 18 seconds. The unofficial time recorded by NASA representative Ken Davidian was 1:18. And while their climber did perform well on the way up it experienced problems on the way down as panels started coming off as the picture below shows.

[The Kansas City Space Pirates climber ascending the ribbon in the finals competition. Click on image for larger version.]

[The Kansas City Space Pirates climber loses some of its panels during its descent in the the finals competition. Click on image for larger version.]

The technology Tycoons used their first attempt in the finals as a test run and almost reach the top of the 400 foot ribbon coming within five feet of the top. They did not however meet the criteria to win the prize and will try again at around 4:00 pm. Pictures will be posted soon.

[Technology Tycoons climber ascends almost to the top of the 400 foot the ribbon in the finals competition. Click on image for larger version.]

Although UBC failed to meet the criteria to win the power beaming climber NASA sponsored challenge they did get their climber almost to the top of the 400 foot ribbon. Unfortunately they have leave today so they won't get another opportunity to try for the prize.

[The University of British Columbia climber ascending the ribbon in the finals competition. Click on image for larger version.]

[The University of British Columbia climber ascending the ribbon in the finals competition. Click on image for larger version.]

[The University of British Columbia climber ascending the ribbon in the finals competition. Click on image for larger version.]