The space elevator has took its first climb today.

space elevator

Grant it, it was just a scale model and went 260 feet, but hey, it did it while snowing.

The space elevator is the only real way for humans to get of this rock, because its way way cheaper then rockets.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge is where the test took place.

I hope this is a sample of whats to come. I I was a billionaire like Paul Allen, I wouldn't be spending 25 million on a sub orbital craft (spaceship one), I would be spending billions on a working protoype of a space elevator, and if you want it to pay itself off of generate an income, you wouldn't have to worry about that because you would get as many payloads as you could handle. The rocket is a big chunk of the mission price on projects, so instead of people paying 10,000 per pound to get something in space they could pay 100 per pound. That would launch humans into the real space age.

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[edit on 17-11-2004 by Murcielago]

I read that article but I still don't see how exactly that is to work. This "elevator" can ride a "ribbon" which will go all the way into space? I don't see how that is possible.

In fact, I am reminded of what my lying first grade teacher once told me "by the year 2000 NASA will have completed a bride which will go all the way to the moon." If this space elevator is what I'm thinking it is, perhaps the "Moon Bridge" has some truth behind it as well.

Moon Bridge I think your teacher was on something.

To learn more about the Space Elevator go to this.

Pretty neat.I'd rather ride something like Spaceship One to space though.

Barring the normal arguments when looking at this model, how much is something like that going to be able to carry? It doesn't appear to be much.

that's awesome... I've read some things about this in the past, but never saw what it would look like..

I work in the conventional elevator industry... we don't have anything like that...


can't wait until it's a passenger space elevator...