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Patent Awarded for Space Elevator

posted by CoolHand on Tuesday August 18 2015, @11:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the believe-when-we-see-it dept.

Anonymous Coward writes:

A Canadian company, Thoth Technology Inc, has been awarded a patent for an inflatable space elevator.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/space-elevator-could-lift-people-12-miles-up-in-the-air/

A Canadian space company was recently awarded a patent for a space elevator that would reach about 12 miles (20 kilometers) above the Earth's surface.

...

According to Thoth Technology Inc., the company that was awarded the patent, the U.S. patent allows for an elevator that would be 30 percent cheaper than the fuel required by a conventional rocket. Also, the system would be fully reusable, further reducing costs, the company said.

"Astronauts would ascend to 20 km by electrical elevator," inventor Brendan Quine said in a statement. "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."

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by deimtee on Wednesday August 19 2015, @04:10AM

    by deimtee (3272) on Wednesday August 19 2015, @04:10AM (#224781) Journal

    You get about 460 m/s by launching east from the equator. Building it in Canada seems strange, as losing that advantage cancels out most of the gain from launching at altitude.
    If you combined equator and tower, you knock about a km/s off your delta v. That would be very significant.

    Regarding landing on top, it is not clear just how big the deck is, but they are clearly aiming at spacex landing tech. Watch the grasshopper videos - amazing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZDkItO-0a4/ [youtube.com]

    But I don't think it will work for them. Grasshopper is supposed to be the basis for a re-useable first stage, not a SSTO with VTOL.
    Carrying fuel to orbit and back to use rockets to land is wasteful, when you can just use aerobraking/gliding. It makes a lot more sense for a first stage that only gets up to a km/s or two before coming down again.

    I suppose there is also an advantage to the tower in that that you could optimise your rockets for much closer to vacuum operation.

    --
    If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
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