Big breakthrough?, page-12

Japanese construction giant Obayashi plans to have a space elevator built of carbon nanotubes up and running by 2050.  With one end firmly anchored to the ocean floor and the other held in position by a counterweight, the elevator will rise 96,000 km into space making space travel a real possibility using robot cars or climbers.  There are several technical difficulties still to be overcome including the fact that the group can only make nanotubes three centimetres long and then there are issues with cable tensioning and braking. Nonetheless, since the idea was first announced two years ago plans are firming and international collaboration is emerging as the way to go.

Perhaps Mr Thompson is already on the case given graphene could potentially provide a highly cost-effective solution.  I know most of us will have grey hair or worse by 2050 however, in the meantime, there are plenty of other emerging applications and any work done on this concept might turn out to be more than just pie in the sky.

So keep up the good work and bring on the scoping study and those updates with potential customers.

If you want to follow up try Googling japanese space elevator or go to

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-...giants-promise-space-elevator-by-2050/5756206