First ‘space elevator’ — a 66,000-mile cable to the cosmos— closer than ever before as scientists make breakthrough

NY Post ^ | 8/31/26 | Chadwick Moore

[Libloather]

On a visit to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston last week, President Trump promised American astronauts would establish a permanent presence on the Moon before pushing forward to Mars.

“Our nation will conquer … this vast frontier that we have before us … We will explore it, we will tame it, and we will win it,” he said of America’s present “golden age” of space exploration.

But researchers thinking of truly big ideas say we’ll never get there with today’s inefficient chemical rocket technology. And they point to an important breakthrough.

“We’re really pushing for permanent infrastructure, like a bridge replacing ferries to cross a river,” Pete Swan, president of the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC), a nonprofit research and advocacy hub, told The Post.

It’s a simple yet mind-bending concept: an ultra-strong electrified cable running from a point on the ground at Earth’s equator, extended out beyond geostationary orbit (GEO), where a counterweight will float in space keeping it taut. Vessels then climb the cable to deliver goods, people and machines, passing through the atmosphere and into space.

“The beauty is that raising it with electricity saves our atmosphere from pollution, it doesn’t leave any debris along the way and it will be routine, daily, inexpensive, safe. It’s gonna be a bridge to space.”

Crazy as it sounds, the engineering checks out, according to researchers who spoke to The Post.

However, the bottleneck to the space elevator idea has always been the tether material, because it must be scalable, 100 times stronger than steel, exceptionally lightweight and capable of efficient spooling in order to get the whole thing in place.

Next month, the ISEC is set to announce they have their most promising candidate yet—a two-dimensional material called polycrystalline graphene, already widely used in the consumer electronics industry.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Outdoors; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: breakthrough; cable; scientists; space; spaceelevator

[lurk]

The physics simply don’t support this idea. But it keeps reappearing every few years.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

The degree of the Tilt does change. This, and the changes to geographical features like the continents and the normal precession of the axis through the ecliptic and the equinoxes all combine to result in the dreaded and unfixable "Climate Change".

Earth-s-Axial-Tilt-The-Specifics

...xnip...In the course of a year. We have different seasons because of this. However, the locations of the north and south poles are not static. In reality, the axial tilt of the Earth oscillates between 22.1° and 24.5°. The Earth’s axis also wobbles around itself, which accounts for the shifting axial/obliquity angle. It results from the gravitational pull of the Sun, Moon, and other planets. However over time, Earth’s environment and climate have been significantly shaped by its axial tilt...xnip...

I suspect climate change is also affected when our solar system goes above or below the protective dust shielding along Galactic plane and we are all of a sudden subjected to all sorts of radiation from the stars and black holes at the center of the galaxy that cause an increase in lightning in thunderstorms, but that is for another thread!

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Something with this reminds me of Jack and the Beanstalk. You might get something coming back down that cable that you do not want.

[PGR88]

the bottleneck to the space elevator idea has always been the tether material, because it must be scalable, 100 times stronger than steel, exceptionally lightweight and capable of efficient spooling in order to get the whole thing in place.

We already have it. Its called Reardon Metal from the Reardon Steel Company!

[DannyTN]

If it snaps you just jump over it.

[Señor Presidente]

The scene in The Outlaw Josey Wales comes to mind. While the Union officers are mid-river on a transport platform, Clint Eastwood takes aim and shoots out the rope.

[HandyDandy]

Graphene is a zero-gap semiconductor, because its conduction and valence bands meet at the Dirac points. The Dirac points are six locations in momentum space, on the edge of the Brillouin zone, divided into two non-equivalent sets of three points. The two sets are labeled K and K'. The sets give graphene a valley degeneracy of gv = 2. By contrast, for traditional semiconductors the primary point of interest is generally Γ, where momentum is zero. Four electronic properties separate it from other condensed matter systems.

In case that helps.

[higgmeister]

"Sounds like the dumbest idea of the century."

I read about it in they 1960's.   Did you never fill a bucket with water, then swing it over you head in a circle and marvel at the fact that the water didn't drop out of the bucket?

The Space Hook would work like that.

[DennisR]

I disagree. It is the dumbest idea since the beginning of time. This will be the scenario:

Her: Could you run to the store and buy some hamburger for dinner?
Him: Sure - see you in a few days.
Her: That will not work. How about we go to our favorite restaurant instead? Oh...
Him: Maybe after dinner we could go down to the lake and...oh.

Only a moron would think they could/should live on the moon or on Mars.

[EQAndyBuzz]

What will happen to the cable with 24x7 pressure on it from entering the atmosphere? Will it be coated in heat shield material?

[pelican001]

This is definitely the most stupid idea of the century. To get up to that station 66,000 miles up in geosynchronous orbit, you would not only have to lift the object up, but also accelerate it sideways to get up the the higher rotational speed of the station..

Here on earth, the rotational speed at the surface is about 1000 miles per hour (one full rotation in 24 hours). At 66,000 miles up, the rotation speed would be about 17 times higher, or about 17,000 miles per hour. The difference between that and the surface speed would have to be made up by a rocket firing sideways as the object was lifted to the station 66,000 miles up. The total rocket energy expended in such a lift would be nearly the same as in a conventional launch.

[citizen]

I read about it on some SF book way before 1979, mid-60s so the book preceded that. Can’t remember the name.

[sit-rep]

It’s a simple yet mind-bending concept: an ultra-strong electrified cable running from a point on the ground at Earth’s equator, extended out beyond geostationary orbit (GEO), where a counterweight will float in space keeping it taut.

First thought... wouldnt another on be necessary on the opposite side of the planet? and then 2 others north and south to balance the "Wobble"?? well by the time theyre done i'll be dead so I guess it wont matter... ...66,000 miles of cable with a counter weight at the end... I dont imaging thatwould weight less than 500lbs...

[Ditto]

. There have been theories that when the earths magnetic poles flipped (not shifted) that the earth “tumbled” until it regained equilibrium.

The magnetic poles have nothing to do with the Earths rotation. The magnetic North Pole is not even at the “true” North Pole. (Where Santa Claus lives. ;~)). Magnetic north is somewhere in Northern Canada now but it does move and could even flip as you said. But it would mean nothing for the rotation of the earth or where true north and south are or where the equator is.

[citizen]

Or is blown up in a terrorist attack.

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That's what happened to the Mars elevator cable depicted in Kim Stanley Robinson's Red-Green-Blue Mars trilogy.

A quasi-terrorist group of Mars "purists," the Red faction, wanted to keep Mars in an undisturbed, pristine condition and sabotaged settlement and terraforming endeavors. They blew off the orbiting asteroid counterweight at the space end of the cable and it came crashing down with great force, wrapping one and a half times around Mars.

[citizen]

The cable itself will have no speed relative the Earth, as it will rotate once a day like everything else on the planet.

[citizen]

An asteroid counterweight would “orbit” at a matching the rotation of the Earth’s spin. Centrifugal force would keep the cable taut and the asteroid stationary, on a direct line projected from the center of the Earth along the cable.

[central_va]

Will it be made by Otis?

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

The degree of the Tilt does change. This, and the changes to geographical features like the continents and the normal precession of the axis through the ecliptic and the equinoxes all combine to result in the dreaded and unfixable "Climate Change".

Earth-s-Axial-Tilt-The-Specifics

...xnip...In the course of a year. We have different seasons because of this. However, the locations of the north and south poles are not static. In reality, the axial tilt of the Earth oscillates between 22.1° and 24.5°. The Earth’s axis also wobbles around itself, which accounts for the shifting axial/obliquity angle. It results from the gravitational pull of the Sun, Moon, and other planets. However over time, Earth’s environment and climate have been significantly shaped by its axial tilt...xnip...

I suspect climate change is also affected when our solar system goes above or below the protective dust shielding along Galactic plane and we are all of a sudden subjected to all sorts of radiation from the stars and black holes at the center of the galaxy that cause an increase in lightning in thunderstorms, but that is for another thread!

[BikerJoe]

To me, Elon is a real-life D.D. Harriman.