Space Sciences Space elevator: Building a stairway to heaven!

[Second Summer]

A Canadian space company was recently awarded a patent for a space elevator that would reach about 12 miles (20 kilometers) above the Earth's surface.

Although space elevators have been considered a theoretical technology, they have been billed as a cheaper alternative to rocket launches, especially when it comes to sending heavy objects or people into space.

More: Wild Inflatable Space Elevator Idea Could Lift People 12 Miles Up (17. August 2015)

(For reference, the ISS (international space station) is at an orbit between 330 and 435 km above the Earth's surface.)

There will be a 30% cost saving in fuel for space planes utilizing the tower.

Space elevators have been described e.g. in the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson.

 

[Andy_T]

Yes, I've seen an episode about that one on "Phineas and Ferb"!

 

[Second Summer]

Having looked at this a little bit, it seems it's more like a big tower and not a true space elevator. A proper space elevator reaches well into geostationary orbit at 35,800km altitude, so can send cargo directly into orbit without the need for space planes. A proper space elevator is using the outward pull of the centrifugal force to counter the downward pull of the gravitational force.

 

[Blobbenstein]

I think maybe some kind of pyramid might work; made with some very strong substance..


maybe something like honeycomb diamond, if they could print that as they went up.

 

[Andy_T]

Having looked at this a little bit, it seems it's more like a big tower and not a true space elevator. A proper space elevator reaches well into geostationary orbit at 35,800km altitude, so can send cargo directly into orbit without the need for space planes.

Indeed, but the difference between 20 kilometers as suggested and 35,800 kilometers to have a "proper" space elevator seems not negligible.

So, once the tower is complete, they would be about 0.077 % there... quite a way still to go.