Space Elevator Going Up By 2050

You may not need a rocket to reach the moon in 2050, just an elevator.

Obayashi Corp, Japanese construction firm announced this week that they’ll have a space elevator operational in the next 35 years.

It would take about seven days to transport people or cargo along the 59,651 - mile journey. Though twice as long as it takes a spacecraft; the cost would be significantly lower.

But the success of such a futuristic mode of transportation are carbon nanotubes - cylinders of carbon atoms which are so small and cannot be seen with the human eye,. Yet their tensile strength is almost a hundred times stronger than steel. The idea is to build a carbon nanotube cable between the Earth’s surface and the Moon and run magnetically levitating robotic cars up and down it. 

Several universities are working with Obayashi on the various parts. Their problem at the moment is on the nanotube cable which doesn’t go very high above the Earth.

Yoji Ishikawa,  a research and development manager at Obayashi told Tech Times that “Right now we can’t make the cable long enough. We can only make                     3-centimeter-long nanotubes but we need much more… we think by 2030 we’ll be able to do it”.

source: Discovery news