Thanks BenLurkin.
Posted on 08/16/2015 7:23:13 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Canadian firm has been granted a patent for a ‘space elevator’ which will shoot cargo 12.4 miles into the stratosphere from where it can be launched more easily.
According to Thoth Technology, the lift would cut the cost of space flight by around one third because shuttles would not need to carry enormous amounts of fuel to get themselves off the ground.
“Astronauts would ascend to 12 miles by electrical elevator,” said Dr Brendan Quine, the inventor.
“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.”
...
Engineers had always believed that space elevators would be unfeasible because no material exists which could support itself at such a height - although diamond nano-threads have been suggested.
However the new design by Thoth gets around the problem by only building the elevator to 12.4 miles so that it sits in the stratosphere rather than going all the way out into geostationary orbit, where satellites fly, which is around 22,000 miles up.
Dubbed the 'ThothX Tower' it would be inflatable, made with reinforced segments and topped with a runway from which satellite payloads could be launched. It would stay upright using a complex arrangements of fly-wheels to compensate for the tower bending.
The patent suggests that either pressurised cars would run in the core of the structure – like in traditional pneumatic tube message systems, or alternatively, they could climb up the outside of the shaft like a funicular railway. Each car could carry around 10 tonnes of cargo.
According to the designers, the tower could also be used for scientific research, communications, and generate energy from high up wind turbines.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Base jumpers mecca.
It’s not “invented” until it’s up in the air.
Consoladate high-rise housing in democrat cities
,,,and they’re buying a stairway to Heaven.
Thanks BenLurkin.
Consolidate - where’s FR spell-check when you need it?
Vaporware on a grand scale.
I just ‘invented’ a laptop that brews beer, rolls cigars, and runs on lawn clippings.
I recall ideas like this being floated in the 50s and 60s.
Getting off the ground is not the problem. Accelerating to Orbital Velocity (~ 18K mph) or Escape Velocity (~ 25K mph) is what takes all the Energy/Fuel/$$$$$$$
BTW, when one of our kids was at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona back in the mid-1990s, they had a model of the Space Elevator in a glass case in one of the Administration buildings.
Exactly!
Put me down for a pre-order.
Still a better use for money than welfare
Wouldn’t the jet stream play havock with this?
I already have a patent on that! You owe me. :^)
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