PEMBROKE, Ont. ? A Canadian company has been granted a U.S. patent for a 20-kilometre-high space elevator.
Thoth Technology of Pembroke, Ont., says the freestanding structure would allow astronauts to launch from a platform high above the Earth.
The company says the new technology would save more than 30 per cent of the fuel of a conventional rocket.
The inventor, engineer and physicist Dr. Brendan Quine, says the elevator would be pneumatically pressurized and guided over its base to allow such a tall and slender structure to stand freely.
The company says the space elevator could also be used for wind-energy generation, communications and tourism.
Quine says the project will cost between US$5 billion and US10 billion and could take three to five years to complete.
~ Canadian company gets patent for 20-km space elevator
Canadian company gets patent for 20-kilometre-high space elevator - The Globe and Mail
?From the top of the structure you would be able to launch using a single stage space plane directly into low Earth orbit, and the return to the top of the structure and you wouldn?t need any expendable rockets that would come off during the flight,? inventor Dr. Brendan Quine said from the Algonquin Radio Observatory in Pembroke, Ont.
?The whole thing would be like a passenger jet.?
Quine says the structure would be pneumatically pressurized and guided over its base to allow it to stand freely.
?The centre of the patent is how to control such a huge and slender structure,? Quine said. ?We basically null out the external forces on the tower using pneumatic pressure and actually lean the tower, actively guide the centre of gravity towards things like hurricanes so that the tower won?t fall down.?
He said the company intends to use pneumatic cells composed of materials like polyethylene and Kevlar and leverage the power of gas pressure to create a strong, rigid structure capable of holding up the immense mass.
Ingenious!
Plus it will save on gas? Now that's totally a Canadian thing. :D
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