"This structure could be made of commercially available materials," said Brendan Quine, who, along with Raj Seth and George Zhu at York University in Toronto, Canada, wrote an article detailing their tower in the journal Acta Astronautica.
The tower itself would be 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) tall, 230 meters (754 feet) across, and weigh approximately 800,000 tons, or about twice the weight of the world's largest supertanker when fully inflated with a variety of gasses, including helium.
To keep the Kevlar-laminate tower from floating away, and to provide access, three elevator tubes would anchor the tower to the ground. An elevator ride to the top would take about 40 minutes moving at 22 miles per hour.
Tethered to a mountain 3.1 miles high, the tower would initially rise 12.4 miles (20 kilometers).
"At 20 kilometers you still have gravity, but the view would be similar to that of an astronaut," with a black, not blue, sky. The ultimate height of an inflatable tower could be 200 kilometers (124 miles).
A person, or communications array, could also see 373 miles in any direction from 12.4 miles in the air."
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- DeliaTheArtist
- added this
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Tower of Babel? Wouldn't it be especially amusing if it were to somehow interfere with wireless communication.
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Cool, I'd totally BASE that thing.
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- krush_productions
- 4 months ago
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"Movin' On Up"
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- ras_menelik
- 4 months ago
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Let's make a Halo halo.
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- Mikeysfake1
- 4 months ago
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it looks like one of those covenant lifts in Halo.
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Also sounds like a good way to collect solar energy by putting panels on it, that would help support the structure
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I'm sure this is just barely outside my current affordable price range...
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- shocksopping
- 4 months ago
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These stories seem to come along often with no actual work ever being done. I wonder if this stuff gets bought by the military then gets suppressed or if there is something even more sinister going on?
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That's pure innovation and brilliance at its finest. I had thought of society building towers into space a few years ago, and using them as anchors to space colonies in orbit. would be an interesting feat to see this played out.
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- thepatient
- 4 months ago
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Sweet space elevator!
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- Bigdog_mike
- 4 months ago
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Wow that would be neat!
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Tethered to a mountain? That's a little weird and probably pretty amazing sight to see.
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want to travel to point a to point b???
molecular vibration..............teleportation
easier..cheaper..
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- GodsnLiberals
- 4 months ago
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this could make a good pathway for electricity produced in space, i wonder if the jet stream could be tapped as an energy sourse using this tech.
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do you have any idea how wide an inflatable structure 9 miles high would have to be just to remain erected strait against winds would have to be? Lets not mention that it would be made out of hydrocarbon based materials... environmentalists would go nuts... and you want to put a freaking 100k ton space shuttle on top of it? It is going to have to support a launching platform then too... how much would that weigh?
Is there an award for the stupidest innovation ever? This definitely needs a nomination at the least.
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on the 40 minute ride up I hope they have 'The Girl from Ipanema' on repeat. Classic elevator music.
