Japanese construction company Obayashi claims that it’s possible to build a working space elevator by the year 2050. The company’s plans reveals that when finished, its space elevator will be able to reach 96,000 kilometers (around 60,000 miles) into space carrying either cargo or even humans. Obayashi also plans to build a space station as the destination for the elevator ride, which is assumed to take about seven days to complete.
“The tensile strength is almost a hundred times stronger than steel cable so it’s possible,” the project’s research and development manager, Yoji Ishikawa told ABC. “Right now we can’t make the cable long enough. We can only make 3-centimetre-long nanotubes but we need much more… we think by 2030 we’ll be able to do it.”
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If things go according to plan, we will likely be lucky enough to take a trip to space at an affordable cost without having to take the risks of a rocket.
[Via: Engadget / ABC]
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