Words Gabriela Lee
Remember Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator? Willy Wonka's fabulous invention - a glass elevator that could comfortably fit a
queen-sized bed and travel in outer space - might not just be a figment of the imagination. Scientist Bradley C. Edwards thinks that returning a
man to the moon in an elevator that could climb up to 62,000 miles into outer space is more than just a science-fiction possibility.
"It's not new physics - nothing new has to be discovered, nothing new has to be invented from scratch," he says. "If there are delays in budget or
delays in whatever, it could stretch, but 15 years is a realistic estimate for when we could have one up." The project is priced at $10 billion, which
is a small price to pay compared to NASA's other projects. As head of the space elevator project at the Institute for Scientific Research in Fairmont,
West Virginia, Edwards is already being given funds by NASA to pursue the project, and US Congress is backing him up.
He envisions an elevator supported by nanotube cables - tiny bundles of carbon atoms no more than three feet wide and thinner than a piece of
paper, but able to support a load of about 13 tons. The cable would then be attached to a mobile platform at the equator, where air traffic is
non-existent, the weather is calm and the winds are good. The elevator itself would be attached to the cable, and a counterweight connected at
the end. Everything would be powered by photo cells and the converted electricity would be delivered by laser.
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