It’s described as being 20 km high, inflatable, containing an elevator, and being kept upright by “stabilization devices”.
Feasible?
Pipe dream?
Investment scam?
ETA: Telegraph article: Inflatable ‘space elevator’ invented by scientists
I would imagine nothing would be better than to try and launch something while swaying back and forth 20km above the ground.
Better make sure you stick the landing.
I see they also sell ruggedized Beavers.
Presumably it would be stabilized so as not to sway, but it really doesn’t sound feasible to me.
I somehow doubt the credentials of a company that uses Google Sketchup to make a 3rd grade level rendering of their vision for the future of space travel.
20km is space?
I think their theory is that 20 km is high enough to cold-launch a space plane with a catapult, then it lights up the main rocket once it’s clear and can reach LEO.
Intuitively, it seems to make a mockery out of everything we know about material sciences. How do you keep a 12 mile high structure rigid, especially one that’s inflatable? How do you keep it from behaving like one of those inflatable tubes they put in front of car dealerships? The temperature is at the top is going to be something like -60 centigrade. Materials get brittle at those temperatures, so whatever exotic substance they’re building this out of will have to be pretty amazing.
Only 22,224 miles to go!
Right now the largest elevator in the world has a capacity of 80 passengers or 11,574 lbs. The Space Shuttles, widely mocked as cargo haulers, had a capacity of 55,100 lbs.
Even if the designers get past the problem of the column collapsing under its own weight, how much will the elevator be able to lift without making the entire structure unstable?
Wouldn’t the atmosphere at 12 miles high be a trifle thin for inflating purposes ?
Just guessing.
Highly regarded in lumber camps, pour l’amour.
Sorry, thinking of something different.
Sniffs I smell patent trolls.
Sounds perfectly reasonable except for the last 65,000 feet.
Ruggedized Moon beavers.
They’re going to try to enforce the patent against someone with a real space elevator?
Maybe I should patent the flux capacitor and then sue all of those time machine manufacturers.
I’m probably misunderstanding your point. I do agree that there must be some reason for the patent other than any actual plans to build the thing.
They have a patent. Nobody else can make a 12 mile high inflatable airport. That doesn’t seem to be worth much but it may be used to try and raise money for research which could lead to more related patents until they get one that’s got some value.
Raising money for something you don’t intend to build? Isn’t that called fraud?
I said for research.
How does that work? You claim that you can build something that you can’t and then use that claim to obtain research money? That sounds fishy to me.