Japan To Build A Space Elevator By 2050

Obayashi, a company from Japan, has revealed that they want to build an elevator up into space by the year 2050.

Space Elevator Would Go 96,000km Into Space

The space elevator was said to go up around 96,000 km into space and it would be able to take people and shipments to a new space station. The company also plan on using the space elevator to transport astronauts to Mars and even beyond. The process of construction is to consist of the deployment of a cable and then the construction of facilities. The cable dynamics would need to be analyzed so that estimation could be gathered of the characteristics of the cable, the facilities, counter-weight and the climbers so that the construction procedures could be determined.

The parameters for the dynamics of the cable are said to include displacement, tension and the elongation of the cable for ascending climbers, the wind, fixed loads of the facilities, the counter-weight and the cable. The company said that the system has been designed using a computer simulation of the equations of motion, which allowed them to determine the construction process.

Space Elevator Could Reduce Payload Cost By 90%

The video showed a cable going up into space from the ocean, with facilities and even people floating around in the facilities, peering out of windows looking down at what is presumably Earth. Obayashi said that the space elevators could help to reduce the cost of payloads being sent into space by as much as 90%. They pointed out that the elevator to space would do away with the need to build and use rockets. The company also plan on using the system as a port to allow space travel by astronauts over long distances.

Carbon Nanotube Cable Or Diamond Nanothreads Used In Construction

The space elevator would consist of a carbon nanotube cable of some 96,000km, carbon nanotubes are said to be lighter and stronger than the majority of materials known. An alternative would be to construct the cable from diamond nanothreads. It was said that one of the ends of the cable would be attached to the surface of Earth, probably on the ocean, and the other end would extend around 36,000km in space. The cable would also be attached to a counterweight weighing 13,000 tons to help with the stabilization of the elevator. The space elevator would then be able to carry up to 100 tons of people and cargo into deep space.

The company plan on beginning construction of the space elevator in 2025 and it is thought that construction would be complete in twenty years.