Skip to content
The Mindanao Examiner Regional Newspaper

The Mindanao Examiner Regional Newspaper

Title

Name

Primary Menu
  • Home
  • Mindanao
  • Visayas
  • National
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • International
  • SciTech
  • Health & Wellness
  • Sports
  • About Us
    • Regional Advertising Rates
    • Contact Us
    • Profile
  • Home
  • International
  • Patented ‘space elevator’ may put astronauts into orbit – Al Jazeera
  • Featured
  • International
  • Technology

Patented ‘space elevator’ may put astronauts into orbit – Al Jazeera

Editor August 18, 2015

A Canadian space company, has been granted the US patent for a space elevator which would take astronauts 20km above Earth so they could then be propelled into orbit.

The freestanding space tower would be pneumatically pressurised and be 20 times the height of current tall structures.

“Astronauts would ascend to 20km by electrical elevator. From the top of the tower, space planes will launch in a single stage to orbit, returning to the top of the tower for refueling and reflight,” said Dr Brendan Quine, the inventor.

Announced on Monday in the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) Official Gazette, the tower could also be used for wind-energy generation, communications and tourism.

The technology offers an exciting new way to access space using completely reusable hardware and saving more than 30 percent of the fuel of a conventional rocket.

Caroline Roberts, the president and chief executive of Thoth Technology, which has been awarded the patent, believes the space tower, coupled with self-landing rocket technologies being developed by others, will herald a new era of space transportation.

“Landing on a barge at sea level is a great demonstration, but landing at 12 miles (20km) above sea level will make space flight more like taking a passenger jet.”

The space elevator tower has a segmented elevator core structure, each segment being formed of at least one pneumatically pressurised cell.

The pressure cells may be filled with air or another gas. Elevator cars may ascend or descend on the outer surface of the elevator core structure or in a shaft on the interior of the elevator core structure.

A payload may be launched from a pod or deck at the upper end of the space elevator tower.

‘Fountains of Paradise’

It has previously been proposed, most famously by Arthur C Clarke in his 1978 novel, The Fountains of Paradise, that a space elevator could be constructed using a cable and counter-balanced mass system.

For Earth’s gravity and spin rate, such a solution requires a cable of at least 35,000km in length and a counter balance mass similar to a small asteroid.

Such a system could be constructed by launching the cable into space or manufacturing it in situ and lowering it into contact with Earth.

However, the technological obstacles that must be overcome, including the construction of a cable with suitable strength characteristics, or the in-space construction of the apparatus, have not been realised since the concept was popularised by Clarke.

Known materials are simply not strong enough to enable the construction of a cable of that length that would even be capable of supporting its own weight. ( Al Jazeera )

Link: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/08/patented-space-elevator-astronauts-orbit-150817184915018.html

fb-share-icon
Tweet 20

Continue Reading

Previous: 12 amazingly quirky pods for campers – CNN
Next: Iran to work with rivals for peace – VP Masumeh Ebtekar – BBC News

Related News

Dmitry-Medvedev
  • International

Russian official claims nations ready to supply Iran with nuclear weapons

Editor June 23, 2025
Iran-Nuclear-Sites-target
  • International

Nuclear watchdog condemns US attack on Iranian nuclear sites as ‘illegal’

Editor June 23, 2025
KA-GO-Cordless-Food-Chopper
  • Business
  • Technology

The New KitchenAid® Go™ Cordless System brings Freedom to the Kithchen

Editor June 17, 2025

Trending News

Russian official claims nations ready to supply Iran with nuclear weapons Dmitry-Medvedev 1
  • International

Russian official claims nations ready to supply Iran with nuclear weapons

June 23, 2025
Nuclear watchdog condemns US attack on Iranian nuclear sites as ‘illegal’ Iran-Nuclear-Sites-target 2
  • International

Nuclear watchdog condemns US attack on Iranian nuclear sites as ‘illegal’

June 23, 2025
PH gov’t hits country’s ‘false ranking’ as least safe for travelers Christina-Frasco-Dot 3
  • National
  • Tourism

PH gov’t hits country’s ‘false ranking’ as least safe for travelers

June 19, 2025
PhilHealth’s New Benefits for Post-Kidney Transplantation Services PhilHealth-Artcard 4
  • Health
  • National

PhilHealth’s New Benefits for Post-Kidney Transplantation Services

June 19, 2025
How a Teacher is Cultivating the Future of Agriculture, One Batch of Scholars at a Time JeromeMabaso_ JGF-1 5
  • Business

How a Teacher is Cultivating the Future of Agriculture, One Batch of Scholars at a Time

June 19, 2025
  • Facebook
  • X
  • YouTube
  • Blog
Copyright © 2025. The Mindanao Examiner Regional Newspaper. All Rights Reserved. | MoreNews by AF themes.