kasturi
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Space elevator in a tower 12 miles high could one day give astronauts a leg-up into the cosmos
14 August 2015
Canadian space firm Thoth has outlined plans for an elevator to space, potentially saving huge amounts of fuel and money that form part of the vast cost of launching rockets into orbit.
The company has been granted a US patent to build a freestanding tower, reaching 12 miles (20 km) above the planet's surface.
The space tower would be more than 20 times the height of Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.
President and chief executive of Thoth Caroline Roberts claims the space tower will also include self-landing rocket technologies to herald a new era of space transportation.
As well as tourism, the elevator could also be used for wind-energy generation and communications.
The mastermind behind the project is inventor Dr Brendan Quine.
He said: 'Astronauts would ascent to 12 miles (20km) by electrical elevator.
'From the top of the tower, space planes will launch in a single stage to orbit, returning to the top of the tower for refuelling and reflight.'
While other designs for space elevators have involved complex designs using graphene or carbon nanotubes, the Thoth design reportedly uses inflatable sections and flywheels to provide dynamic stability.
This is not the first time a space elevator has been proposed, with many engineers considering it as a possibility since it was first suggested by Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1895.
The design by Thoth seeks to get around the complication of geostationary orbit by limiting its height to just 12 miles (20km) instead of the full 62 miles (100 km) considered the end of our atmosphere and the beginning of space.
14 August 2015
Canadian space firm Thoth has outlined plans for an elevator to space, potentially saving huge amounts of fuel and money that form part of the vast cost of launching rockets into orbit.
The company has been granted a US patent to build a freestanding tower, reaching 12 miles (20 km) above the planet's surface.
The space tower would be more than 20 times the height of Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world.
President and chief executive of Thoth Caroline Roberts claims the space tower will also include self-landing rocket technologies to herald a new era of space transportation.
As well as tourism, the elevator could also be used for wind-energy generation and communications.
The mastermind behind the project is inventor Dr Brendan Quine.
He said: 'Astronauts would ascent to 12 miles (20km) by electrical elevator.
'From the top of the tower, space planes will launch in a single stage to orbit, returning to the top of the tower for refuelling and reflight.'
While other designs for space elevators have involved complex designs using graphene or carbon nanotubes, the Thoth design reportedly uses inflatable sections and flywheels to provide dynamic stability.
This is not the first time a space elevator has been proposed, with many engineers considering it as a possibility since it was first suggested by Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1895.
The design by Thoth seeks to get around the complication of geostationary orbit by limiting its height to just 12 miles (20km) instead of the full 62 miles (100 km) considered the end of our atmosphere and the beginning of space.
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