- Researchers propose a 66,000-mile-long space elevator from Earth into space near the equator
- The elevator uses super-strong polycrystalline graphene as a lightweight, scalable tether material
- Climbers would ascend the cable carrying cargo, making space travel cheaper, cleaner, and routine
Researchers say they may be closer than ever to making one of the wildest ideas in space travel a reality: a 66,000-mile-long space elevator stretching from Earth into space. The concept sounds like science fiction, but it is surprisingly straightforward. According to New York Post, a super-strong cable would be anchored near the equator and extend far beyond geostationary orbit, with a counterweight in space keeping it stretched tight. Special vehicles, known as climbers, would then travel up the cable, carrying people, cargo and equipment into space.
"The beauty is that raising it with electricity saves our atmosphere from pollution, it doesn't leave any debris along the way, and it will be routine, daily, inexpensive, and safe. "It's going to be a bridge to space," researchers told The Post.
Supporters say the system could eventually make space travel cheaper, cleaner and far more routine than launching rockets.
The biggest challenge, however, has always been finding a material strong and light enough to make the cable. Researchers say the tether would need to be roughly 100 times stronger than steel while also being lightweight and capable of being manufactured on an enormous scale.
The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) says it may now have its best candidate so far: polycrystalline graphene, an ultra-strong, two-dimensional material already used in electronics and other industries. Graphene consists of carbon atoms arranged in a thin, continuous structure. The "polycrystalline" version is made from multiple small crystal sections, which researchers believe could make it easier to manufacture on a large scale.
Stephen Cohen, a prominent space-elevator researcher, said the field has made significant progress in recent months and that researchers are increasingly confident about the material.
The idea of an elevator to space has been around for more than a century. It was popularised in modern science fiction by British author Arthur C. Clarke, who explored the concept in his 1979 novel The Fountains of Paradise. Clarke famously joked that a space elevator would be built "about fifty years after everybody stops laughing."
The proposed structure would be enormous. Each strand of the tether would essentially be a single molecule, just one atom thick but around one metre wide and roughly 100,000 kilometres (62,000 miles) long. It would run from an Earth-based spaceport at the equator to an anchor far beyond geostationary orbit.
ISEC's concept involves using thousands of these sheets together to create the massive tether. From the ground, the cable could be almost impossible to see, although it would reflect sunlight and occasionally appear as a thin streak in the sky.
There has already been some progress in manufacturing graphene at scale. According to ISEC, engineers in South Korea have produced a polycrystalline graphene structure about 1,000 metres long and half a metre wide, at a production rate of roughly two metres per minute.
Space debris remains one of the biggest risks. Objects travelling through low Earth orbit could damage the tether, so researchers have proposed using multiple cables for redundancy and establishing a restricted zone around the elevator to keep satellites away.
Once operational, cargo vehicles would slowly climb the tether toward geostationary orbit, around 22,000 miles above Earth. The journey to that point could take roughly two weeks. Beyond geostationary orbit, the rotating Earth would provide the necessary centrifugal force. Cargo could then continue along the remaining section of the tether and eventually be released into space at around 16,000 miles per hour.
That could dramatically change how we explore the solar system.
ISEC researchers estimate that cargo released from the top could reach the Moon in as little as 14 hours, compared with roughly three days using current spacecraft. Trips to Mars could potentially take between 61 and 120 days, depending on the planets' positions. Conventional missions can take around seven months and are limited by launch windows that occur roughly every 26 months.
Still, a working space elevator remains far from reality. "It's not a sure thing," pointed out space economics professor Armen Papazian, at the American University in Dubai. "Even if one were to start building a space elevator tomorrow, assuming they find the risk capital to do so, it will take a decade or two to complete, assuming everything goes smoothly."
