The LaserMotive team prepares its laser-powered space elevator prototype for ascent during the competition. (NASA photo)

A team from the Seattle area is leading a NASA-sponsored contest that aims to demonstrate the possibilities for space elevators by sending a payload nearly 3,000 feet into the air -- up a cable suspended from a helicopter. The system is powered by beaming energy from the ground through a laser.

The LaserMotive team from Seattle has qualified for a potential prize of $900,000 -- but so far not the $2 million grand prize -- leading into today's final day of the Power Beaming competition in the 2010 Space Elevator Games at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California's Mojave Desert. The competition is meant to show the potential for lifting satellites and other objects into orbit via super-long ribbons to space.

The Associated Press reports that LaserMotive principals Jordin Kare and Thomas Nugent are ultimately more interested in developing a business based on beaming power, not specifically for space elevators but for a wide variety of uses. Both also work with Intellectual Ventures, the Bellevue-based invention house run by former Microsoft technology chief Nathan Myhrvold.

Here's the latest word on the competition from NASA:

The LaserMotive team has been the only team to meet the second-level standard of climbing the 900-meter cable suspended from a hovering helicopter in less than 7.5 minutes, having accomplished that goal four times in the first two days of competition.

LaserMotive has qualified for the $900,000 second-level prize. If they can knock 47 seconds off their fastest time so far, they could qualify for the top-level prize of up to $2 million for climbing the entire length of the cable in three minutes or less. If other teams make it into either bracket, the judges' scores will be used to determine the exact winnings.

LaserMotive is scheduled to make its final run at 11 a.m. today. Via Gizmodo, here's a video of one of their earlier attempts.