Canada to build world's 1st 20 km-high space elevator?
 

http://www.thewinnipegpages.com/pics...ceelevator.jpg

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

:thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup

We are already hurtling through space on a planet that's perfect for human habitation - but we still don't know how to look after it. Instead of looking for other habitable planets, I suggest we just learn how to take care of this one.

oh great

I'm American, 20 km? that's like an inch and a half. is this an elevator for ants? the elevator needs to be.........at least 3 times bigger.

Almost 13 miles.

Both would be nice.

Why not just use the one in the photo?

this is just a common excuse that has been used for centuries to never excel in anything new. Why explore across the ocean when we can't even have nations at a constant state of piece? Why send people to the moon when we can't solve world hunger? Why explore Mars when we can't employ all first world nations people?

We can come up with an excuse not to venture into new advancements all we want, at the end of the day we need these things to advance as a civilization and every now and then we come across something that changes everything along the way.

I agree for the most part with what you are saying, however there are 2 reasons I can't agree 100%.

1 survival of the human species requires that we inhabit more planets. Right now we are a giant Astroid impact away from being wiped out.

Even certain natural disasters right here on Earth could have drastic impacts on our ability to survive.

2 population.. even if we do everything possible to take care of this planet, we would have to have strict population control. That in itself would cause a lot of social issues. The better solution is to spread the population across other planets.

Would be real cool if erected.

If we could built something that tall.... And launch a fucking rocket from it.... Don't you think we would have done that a decade ago?

If we could build an iPhone, wouldn't we have done that 40 years ago?

It's new patented technology for building a structure that tall. It's not built like a regular building obviously.

First thing that came to mind :1orglaugh

And what an erection that would be :1orglaugh

wait, just yesterday you were wildly declaring that recent tech advances have leveled the playing field with automobiles.

now you're declaring there have been no recent tech advances elsewhere.

You know, 10 years ago might as well be 100 years ago.

We have many new materials now that didn't exist even five years ago.

Ultra high density synthesised cross linked polyethylene, graphene and carbyne.

Pneumatic science has had several recent breakthroughs , especially in stabilisation technology, like that used on massive wind turbines.

So no, this couldn't have been done a decade ago.

I was born and raised in Pembroke, it's a town of 14,000 and it is a lumber town, there are no people there smart enough for this, there are more short buses than full sizers!

Great PR trick to raise Money. Even Chris Mallik cant beat that

Rochard strikes again.

And why 10 years? Why not 5 or 20?

Everything happens at certain point, why this should have happened in 2005 and not in 2025?
Why, genius, why :helpme

Nicely schooled :thumbsup
Rochard is not the smartest cookie, as constantly proven ...

So you say they would not bring in top Canadian and even worldwide engineers and instead will try to source local work force for this?
Cool to know :1orglaugh

As a Canadian - I'll insist it include a dumb waiter to ferry up the beer and poutine.

I like the cut of your jib!

it's a canadian design, beer and weed are included in the basic plans. putin will stay in russia.

I googled the street their space observatory is on - it's a rural road with typical looking houses you find on rural roads all over the US and Canada, i didn't see anything that looked like a real observatory.

It's a husband and wife team, they seem to be legit in that he's an engineer and a professor at York U's school of engineering, they've both studied at Oxford so they're not complete kooks but I think they are dreamers and I bet if you asked anybody even remotely prominent in the international space industry on the government or private side that nobody would have heard of them.

Here they are in 2009 with another idea similar to this one, a space elevator that would take people, 1,000 people a day, up to the edge of space.

Canadian couple shoots for stars with space elevator | CTV News

Here's Mr. and Mrs. Galileo

http://thothx.com/wp-content/uploads...Quine_2003.jpg http://thothx.com/wp-content/uploads...berts_2003.jpg

and here are the other two in the company, the Head of Research and Development and Space Systems Specialist, whose bio says he's a 2 time basketball champion :1orglaugh

http://thothx.com/wp-content/uploads...6/Untitled.jpg http://thothx.com/wp-content/uploads...edin_1_web.jpg

https://imgflip.com/s/meme/Futurama-Fry.jpg

one thing's for sure, that $5 billion to $10 billion estimate is way off. way!

Fairly sure that's Tommy Shaw from Styx and Damn Yankees. :1orglaugh

http://www.mtv.com/shared/media/imag...08548ow391.jpg

haha when i saw him i thought Peter Frampton. Cute couple, they look like they walked out of 1978 though.

Maybe they did. That is next project: timetravel.

Once upon a time, computers were nothing but a fantasy.

everything that can be invented, has been invented.

This will be an accident waiting to happen.

This is nice. Canada will then be known for maple syrup, hockey, annoying French people and now,... an elevator

Way better being known for that than, say...Justin Bieber, Celine Dion and Alan Thicke.

Go elevator!

Haha touché

Fucking Bieber. He's not good for anyone.

You forgot about that stupid robot arm we supplied to the space shuttle that we wouldn't stop talking about for 30 years.

interesting. what happens if it springs a leak? where on the planet would it need to be?

Not necessarily. To make something that tall, it has to be really strong, and really light. Also are other problems. Conventional elevators can't go high enough, and if they couldn't, couldn't get their fast enough. It's quite an engineering job to design and build from what I understand...

We're Canadian. Everybody loves us, coz we're so freakin' awesome. And good looking.


I'll take the beer, you can have my poutine.


You forgot back bacon, the McKenzie brothers, and Rush.

What happens when you reach the top floor? :P

You leap off with a GoPro strapped to your brain bucket.

Haha... i actually used to listen to Doug and Bob Mckenzie when they were a thing. Before that movie (which i actually had as well on VHS and watched all the time in spite of how horrible it was). "Take off... to the great white north... take off... its a beauty wayt to go..."

Canada's national motto...

Currently : Were here.

Updated to : were here and we have a big elevator.

i want to be the first guy to fart in this elevator. beers on me after.

That would be a really really long and uncomfortable ride up.

They'll put a Tim Horton's on the top of it just wait LOL

I want to be the first to get a blowjob on it.

Eat my heart out Felix Baumgartner.

they're from pembroke. i don't know how much faith i'd put in them.

That's what she said.

I doubt no one will copy such idea. patent not needed