Japanese construction company Obayashi Corporation is currently working on an elevator that can transport people into space.
The concept was introduced two years ago, and the firm plans to have its space elevator fully operational by 2050, according to CNET. The company discussed the project with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation last month, saying that it plans to use carbon nanotechnology to make sure the elevator can bring people and materials to their target destination.
The elevator is being designed to take researchers 96,000 kilogram (km), or 59,652 miles, into space. Robotic cars would be used to carry humans and cargo to a new space station, and they would be powered by magnetic linear motors, which are used in Europe and Asia's high-speed rail lines.
"The tensile strength is almost a hundred times stronger than steel cable so it's possible," Yoji Ishikawa, research and development manager at Obayashi, said in reference to the use of carbon nanotechnology. "Right now we can't make the cable long enough. We can only make 3-centimeter-long nanotubes but we need much more."
Ishikawa added that the company is looking to achieve the necessary cable length by 2030, CNET reported.
Bringing cargo into space with the elevator is estimated to cost $200 per km, a much cheaper option than space shuttles, which cost close to $22,000 per km, The Economic Times reported. The project would also present the opportunity to save fuel, since rockets that would be housed and launched from space stations wouldn't need a lot of fuel to break the Earth's gravitational pull.
The robotic cars are being designed to carry 30 people up the elevator.
Japanese research teams are studying the logistics of the elevator to make sure it works, such as how the cars would be able to rise at different altitudes and how they would brake, CNET reported.
While the elevator has the potential to increase tourism and exploration in space, it is a project that Obayashi may not be able to complete without assistance from around the world.
"I don't think one company can make it, we'll need an international organization to make this project big," Ishikawa said.
Obayashi is not the first organization to try to create an elevator that could take people into space. That honor goes to former NASA contractor Michael Laine, who began a Kickstarter campaign in 2012 and raised $110,353 to study the possibility of creating a lunar space elevator.
