Space elevator project announced. A Tokyo company...

Space elevator project announced.

A Tokyo company has announced a project to develop an elevator which would take 7.5 days to take passengers and cargo to a station 36,000km above Earth.

Obayashi Corp says it hopes to use carbon nanotubes to produce cables for the elevator, which would have one end anchored at a ground-based spaceport, and the other end fitted with a counterweight which would be 96,000km above the Earth - one quarter of the distance to the Moon. Solar power generation facilities would also be set up around the terminal station to transmit power to the ground.

The idea of a space elevator has been around for a while, first being suggested in science-fiction novels, and more recently with NASA giving it more serious consideration, although they admit it is definitely a long term project, with many small goals to achieve before it can be built. In 2009 they awarded a US$900,000 prize to company LaserMotive for demonstrating a laser powered robot able to climb a 900m cable - that technology will later be put towards the space elevator project.

It’s not the first time a Japanese company has announced a huge project like this: last year Shimizu Corp unveiled their ‘Master Plan’ to build a belt of solar panels around the Moon and beam the power back to Earth. Check out that story, here.

Meanwhile there seems to be no other details from Obayashi Corp on the space elevator, with an official saying “At this moment, we cannot estimate the cost for the project. However, we’ll try to make steady progress so that it won’t end just up as simply a dream”.

yomiuri.co.jp