Space Elevator Prototype in 5 Years?

[sherlew99]

Reuters


Science | Wed Sep 2, 2015 12:12pm EDT


20 kilometer high space elevator tower planned
By Jim and Drury


Ambitious plans to build a twenty kilometer (12.4 miles) tall space elevator tower have been announced by a Canadian space technology firm.

Although this distance is a mere fraction of that reached in space missions, Thoth Technology says its ThothX Tower will make a major cost reduction in space flights by helping navigate the difficult first 50 kilometers (31 miles) of travel that traditionally requires rockets. The latter are inefficient, particularly regarding fuel consumption. In addition to needing to carry sufficient fuel to get a payload into orbit, they need extra fuel in order to carry the required fuel to reach that point in the first place.

Click here for the rest of the article.

[pickinduck]

I thought I seen something about an inflatable space elevator.

[sherlew99]

Yeah, that's the one I linked to.

[pickinduck]

So it is. Sorry I didn't check out the link when I posted that.
The story of the tower of Babble keeps coming into my head when I see about space elevators.

[sherlew99]

That's OK.

Also, I wonder if others are thinking of the Tower of Babel when they see references to these as well. They probably are.