Tensions rise at space elevator challenge 21:40 22 October 2006 NewScientist.com news service Kelly Young, Las Cruces An emotionally charged, late-night competition to test the strength of tethers designed for use in space elevators ended with no one walking home with the $200,000 first prize on Saturday. Designs for future space elevators call for robotic platforms to carry payloads into space on 100,000-kilometre-long tethers. Proponents of the idea say the method would be cheaper than launching rockets, but the requisite technology still needs to be developed. So in 2005, NASA began sponsoring the Tether Challenge to spur breakthroughs in building...