A Seattle team has won $900,000 in a competition aimed at developing technology based on the science fiction concept of a space elevator.

The team earned the money by sending its laser-powered robot thousands of feet up a cable slung from a helicopter

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.

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.

Theorists propose space elevators as an alternative way to reach orbit without using rockets.