20-km-high 'space elevator' could be a reality soon

[AbbathTheGrim]

Seems like our little green friends will have an easier way to get to this planet and babysit us away from nuclear war. :D

- Cencept got US patent, proposed by Ontario-Based Thoth Techonology firm 

- 20 times the height of the world's tallest building Burj Khalifa

 

- would save fuel and money against rocket launching stuff and people to space

- will include self-landing rocket

- "Astronauts would ascend 20 km by an electric elevator. 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," its inventor Dr Brendan Quine was quoted as saying.

- includes a design with inflatable sections and flywheels that will provide stability

- The patent read:

"The present invention is a self-supporting space elevator tower for the delivery of payloads to at least one platform or pod above the surface of the Earth for the purposes of space launch,"

"The space elevator tower may also be used to deliver equipment, personnel and other objects or people to at least one platform or pod above the surface of the Earth for the purpose of scientific research, communications and tourism," it added. 

The idea of a space elevator was first proposed by Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1895.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/20-km-high-space-elevator-could-be-a-reality-soon/articleshow/48526413.cms

Nice, huh?