Space elevator ThothX
A Canadian firm has been granted a patent for a ‘space elevator’ which will shoot cargo from a height of 20 km into the stratosphere. From there it can be launched more easily and save 1/3rd of the total amount of fuel necessary for leaving Earth’s atmosphere.
People would take an electrical lift inside the tower to reach the top, where is the launch pad/platform from which space craft can take off and land.
▻http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11805987/Inflatable-space-elevator-invented-by-scientists.html
Dubbed the ’ThothX Tower’ it would be inflatable, made with reinforced segments and topped with a runway from which satellite payloads could be launched. It would stay upright using a complex arrangements of fly-wheels to compensate for the tower bending.
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Space elevators were first suggested by Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1895. Tsiolkovsky proposed a freestanding tower reaching into geostationary orbit.
Arthur C Clarke also wrote about a space lift in his 1979 novel The Fountains of Paradise claiming it would bring down costs by transporting cargo directly up to satellites.