Science fiction that is slowly becoming a reality: A Canadian company has applied and secured a U.S. patent for a space elevator – a track for vehicles to carry people and cargo to and from space. It appears that a company called Thoth Technology based in Ontario has a plan to build just that to access space.
The news about the patent was announced ahead of the Space Elevator Conference 2015 happening this month in Seattle. Researchers at Ontario-based Thoth Technology said their "technology could save more than 30 percent of the fuel of a conventional rocket spacecraft, and people could be lifted to a level in the atmosphere requiring less force to launch," Phys.org learned.
For years, the idea of a space elevator has captured the imaginations of several visionaries. However, there has always been the seemingly insurmountable challenge of procuring material that is strong enough to withstand Earth's gravity. Now, however, it sems that carbon nanotubes may do the trick.
Thoth Technology's space elevator – dubbed ThothX Tower – however, will 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," according to The Telegraph. Vehicles would ascend and descend in its core not unlike a train or a cart running vertically. Another proposed option involves the vehicle climbing up the outside of the shaft like a funicular railway, The Telegraph reported.
If the ThothX Tower is finally built, it would be an important milestone in the Space Age. It will drive down the cost of space travel since the elevator would render rockets obsolete. It can shuttle astronauts into space where a vehicle is moored and take them somewhere without the need to address the problem of Earth's gravity. "The researchers propose using a platform on top of the space lift as a launching pad, which could cut the cost of space flight by around one third," reported RT.
