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This is the last part of Elevator To Heaven!!!! Hope u all like it. Plz post ur valuable comments on this. Opening the New Frontier The potential global impact of the space elevator is drawing comparisons to another great transportation achievement -- the U.S. transcontinental railroad. Completed in 1869 at Promontory, Utah, the transcontinental railroad linked the country's east and west coasts for the first time and sped the settlement of the American west. Cross-country travel was reduced from months to days. It also opened new markets and gave rise to whole new industries. By 1893, the United States had five transcontinental railroads. The idea of a space elevator shares many of the same elements as the transcontinental railroad. A space elevator would create a permanent Earth-to-space connection that would never close. While it wouldn't make the trip to space faster, it would make trips to space more frequent and would open up space to a new era of development. Perhaps the...

Staying in Working Order At a length of 62,000 miles (100,000 km), the space elevator will be vulnerable to many dangers, including weather, space debris and terrorists. As plans move forward on the design of the space elevator, the developers are considering these risks and ways to overcome them. In fact, to make sure there is always an operational space elevator, developers plan to build multiple space elevators. Each one will be cheaper than the previous one. The first space elevator will serve as a platform from which to build additional space elevators. In doing so, developers are ensuring that even if one space elevator encounters problems, the others can continue lifting payloads into space. At a length of 62,000 miles (100,000 km), the space elevator will be vulnerable to many dangers, including weather, space debris and terrorists. As plans move forward on the design of the space elevator, the developers are considering these risks and ways to overcome them. In fact, to make s...

How Space Elevators Will Work Riding to the Top While the ribbon is still a conceptual component, all of the other pieces of the space elevator can be constructed using known technology, including the robotic lifter, anchor station and power-beaming system. By the time the ribbon is constructed, the other components will be nearly ready for a launch sometime around 2018. Lifter The robotic lifter will use the ribbon to guide its ascent into space. Traction-tread rollers on the lifter would clamp on to the ribbon and pull the ribbon through, enabling the lifter to climb up the elevator. Anchor Station The space elevator will originate from a mobile platform in the equatorial Pacific, which will anchor the ribbon to Earth. Counterweight At the top of the ribbon, there will be a heavy counterweight. Early plans for the space elevator involved capturing an asteroid and using it as a counterweight. However, more recent plans like those of LiftPort and the Institute for Scientific Research (...

Every one, this is my first part of the Elevator To Heaven!!!! series. Thanks for liking this article. This gave an extra punch to dig more into this.. So let move on When the Space Shuttle Columbia lifted off on April 12, 1981, from Kennedy Space Center, Fla., to begin the first space shuttle mission, the dream of a reusable spacecraft was realized. Since then, NASA has launched more than 100 missions, but the price tag of space missions has changed little. Whether it is the space shuttle or the non-reusable Russian spacecraft, the cost of a launch is approximately $10,000 per pound ($22,000 per kg). A new space transportation system being developed could make travel to Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) a daily event and transform the global economy. A space elevator made of a carbon nanotubes composite ribbon anchored to an offshore sea platform would stretch to a small counterweight approximately 62,000 miles (100,000 km) into space. Mechanical lifters attached to the ribbon would th...

Hi All,, To continue with the space elevator. Lets first have a look on some pics Hmmm so how was that... Reality is stranger than fiction, truly said for this... Some more Gyan: A consortium of scientists and industrial firms has formulated a plan to build a 'space elevator' that would dramatically lower the cost of getting into orbit. The Japan Space Elevator Association has published plans for the structure, which it estimates could be put in place for as little as $9bn. The group believes that the project would revolutionise the cost of satellite communications systems, and make orbital manufacture economically feasible. I will soon a four series article on this that will cover all.

Well how high man can go,,, people say "Sky is the limit" . Well guys I think Japanese have taken this saying rather seriously. After pocket pets, robot dogs and an assortment of other crazy inventions, a collection of Japanese mad scientists have now decided that it's time to reach for the stars--literally. The idea is simple enough build a 36,000 km elevator that goes right up to a stationary satellite in space. Once completed, the cost of getting to space ought to be at least 100 times less than blasting away in a space shuttle, which will, in turn, make space accessible to more of us. "Just like travelling abroad, anyone will be able to ride the elevator into space," says Shuichi Ono, chairman of the Japan Space Elevator Association. The best part about the elevator is that in doesn't bend current laws of physics--the only challenges facing the project are those of infrastructure. It'll need stronger cable than any ever used, structural integri...