Haven’t heard many stories lately about space elevators – great in concept but hard to build lifts that would rely on stiff cables of superstrong unobtainium reaching beyond geosynchronous orbital altitude, stabilized by a huge counterbalance weight at the top flung centripitally by the rotating Earth to maintain a taut structure. Nobody knows how to make one even if the dynamics make sense. Jim Handman, who produces CBC’s Quirks and Quarks Saturday radio show, sent us a message early this week to boost a story on a “crazy Canadian scheme” that goes part way to space. Program host Bob McDonald spoke with the York University man who has the swell idea. It is that a considerably smaller tower built on a mountain – and reaching to around 20 km altitude or “only” about 65,000 feet – but able to hold thousands of tons of weight might be entirely feasible. It would be a lighter-than air structure made of up hydrogen or helium filled cells, inflated to enough pressure to provide some rigidity. Careful manipulation of pressure in cells would make it an adaptable structure able to lean into the wind if needed.  Kevlar might be a suitable material. The professor and his students and other team members already have built a prototype in the stairwell of a campus building.

One question is, so what? So this: it’d be great as a tourist attraction and a launch pad on its top would reduce the demands on rockets to get payloads into actual space, it says here. The full paper – rather detailed and interesting – is in the journal Acta Astronautica with a link below in Grist.

By no stretch of definition is 20 km in space even if it does provide an incredible view of a dark sky and brilliant clouds far below. But the York group believes such towers could be built much taller than this design.

Other Stories: Q&Q’s show came first to my attention, but it’s not the first to have this news.

• Popular Science -  Anna Maria Jakubek (June 8 ) : Will the First Elevator to Space Be Inflatable?  ; Just a brief, with an apt “pipe dream” kicker.
• New Scientist (June 8 ) Jeff Hecht: Inflatable tower could climb to the edge of space ;
• Toronto Star – Raju Mudhar: Scientists envision a stairway to heavens ;

See Also: A blog called Next Big Future (June 8 ) combines news of this balloon tower with a review of another idea that apparently has been around: a “space pier” of inflated structure.

Grist for the Mill: Acta Astronautica journal Paper ; York U. Press Release ;

-CP

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