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Patent Awarded for Space Elevator

posted by CoolHand on Tuesday August 18 2015, @11:22PM   
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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Original Submission

• Re:It's the delta v that matters. (Score: 4, Insightful) by deimtee on Wednesday August 19 2015, @06:09AM

  by deimtee (3272) on Wednesday August 19 2015, @06:09AM (#224841) Journal

  It's like building a longer pier in NYC, so that the ships that sail to Europe would have a shorter trip.

  Not really. That first km/s of delta v probably uses up a third of your fuel.
  To really understand the importance of this, read this page : http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition30/tryanny.html [nasa.gov]

  --
  No problem is insoluble, but at Ksp = 2.943×10⁻²⁵ Mercury Sulphide comes close.

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
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  Insightful=1, Informative=1, Total=2
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  Total Score:		4