The Japanese construction giant Obayashi says they will build a space elevator that will reach 96,000 kilometres into space.
Robotic cars powered by magnetic linear motors will carry people and cargo to a newly-built space station, at a fraction of the cost of rockets. It will take seven days to get there.
The company said the fantasy can now become a reality because of the development of carbon nanotechnology.
“The tensile strength is almost a hundred times stronger than steel cable so it’s possible,” Mr Yoji Ishikawa, a research and development manager at Obayashi, said.
“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.”
Universities all over Japan have been working on the problems and every year they hold competitions to share and learn from each other. Full story: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-21/japanese-construction-giants-promise-space-elevator-by-2050/5756206
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