<div id="subtitle">Seattle team wins $900,000 in NASA-backed 'space elevator' competition in Mojave Desert</div><div><p>A Seattle team has won $900,000 in a competition aimed at developing technology based on the science fiction concept of a space elevator.</p><p>The team earned the money by sending its laser-powered robot thousands of feet up a cable slung from a helicopter</p><p>LaserMotive LLC was presented the check Friday at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in the Mojave Desert after two other competitors in the three-day competition were unable to complete the climb of more than 2,950 feet.</p><p>The LaserMotive machine completed the climb in about three minutes and 48 seconds, good enough for second-place money. The company could have won $2 million if its robot had finished under three minutes.</p><p>Theorists propose space elevators as an alternative way to reach orbit without using rockets.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=62864003&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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