Canadian firm patents 20-km high inflatable space elevator

A Canadian firm has been granted a US patent for an elevator that would extend to 20 km above the Earth's surface and take astronauts at least part way into space.
The elevator, if ever built by Thoth Technology, will offer an exciting new way to access space using completely reusable hardware and saving more than 30 per cent of the fuel of a conventional rocket.
"Astronauts would ascend to 20 km by electrical elevator. From the top of the tower, space planes will launch in a single stage to orbit, returning to the top of the tower for refuelling and reflight," said inventor Dr Brendan Quine.

First proposed by Russian space pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and popularised by Sir Arthur C Clarke in his novel 'The Fountains of Paradise', the space elevator can carry passengers and cargo from the Earth's surface and into geosynchronous orbit about 36,000 km up.
Such a cosmic lift would move payloads much more efficiently at an estimated cost of USD 220 per kg, which is a considerable saving on present costs of USD 25,000 per kg.
An elevator system would also have other advantages, such as being geographically fixed, and being able to carry out many of the functions of a satellite, 'Gizmag' reported.

Current designs for space elevators require a tower or cable reaching up to geosynchronous orbit and another cable stretching thousands of miles beyond, with a counterbalance the size of an asteroid at the end to help hold up the structure.

The modest design of the Thoth tower aims to get around these limitations. According to the patent granted on July 21, the Thoth tower would be only 20 km high and about 230 m in diameter.
Topped with a deck or decks, it could launch satellite payloads from the deck or pods attached to the tower.
While 20 km may not seem like much compared to 36,000 km, it's still 20 times higher than any other manmade structure and high enough to shave a third off of launching costs.

The tower itself would be made of reinforced inflatable sections with an interior elevator tower made of multiple, extruded, pneumatically-reinforced segments.
This forms an inner wall to the inflatable sections and a hollow middle for the elevator car. It also acts as a framework for raising decks, stabilisers, and other building components.
The company proposes using a series of flywheels to provide dynamic stability, and to act as compressors to pressurise the tower.
By adjusting pressure and spin, the flywheels can compensate for any bending of the tower and keep it fixed over its footprint.
As to the elevating component, the patent proposes that pressurised cars would run in the core or climb up the outside of the shaft like a mechanical spider.

In 2012, Tokyo-based construction company Obayashi Corp announced it will built a space elevator capable of shuttling passengers by 2050.