A US-based privately-owned company, LiftPort Group with former NASA researcher Michael Laine at the head, is looking forward to create a space elevator to the Moon. The idea of a space elevator stipulates a rocket-free way to travel with people as well as cargoes into orbit by utilizing a special kind of cable.
The California-based company established by former NASA engineer has developed an inexpensive and simple way to get to the lunar surface. The project will be based upon a special ribbon cable, on which transport modules and autonomous robots will travel. At the start, the researchers plan to test the system on the planet: the test elevator will be 2 kilometers high. Afterwards, a working system will be built. Initially, the company will use a space elevator to connect the Moon with a specially designed space station. The station will then be connected to a platform on Earth.
Company President Michael Laine is convinced that it will take eight years to create the elevator. The construction will need only a single launch of a spacecraft that would technically resemble the famous Soviet Sputnik-1. It is assumed that such an elevator can already become a part of modern-day reality taking into consideration the current level of the technological development.
The space elevator, scientists say, will help people build manned bases on the Earth's natural satellite and organize the extraction of helium-3 there, a raw material that will solve global problems of the shortage of energy resources, writes EnergySafe. According to most pessimistic estimates, the reserves of helium-3 on the Moon will be enough for Earth's population for at least 1, 000 years.
Via: english.pravda.ru
