Going Up, WAY Up

Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers are proposing an elevator reaching 62,000 miles into the sky to launch payloads into space more cheaply than the shuttle can.

“The first country that owns the space elevator will own space,” said lab scientist Bryan Laubscher. “I believe that, and I think Los Alamos should be involved in making that happen.”

One of the first to broach the concept was major science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, in his novel “Fountains of Paradise” in 1953. In his introduction to a later edition, Clarke wrote in 2000, “the space elevator does indeed seem to be an idea whose time has (almost) come.”

Some Los Alamos scientists are so convinced it can be a reality that they are working on their own time on technical details.

Five to 10 scientists at any given time are analyzing the economics, technical specifications of how the elevator would work and possible health risks to those using it. Laubscher said the grassroots effort hopes the U.S. Department of Energy could someday use the information as a start for investing in a space elevator.

Source: CBS News

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