Now on Kickstarter: The First Steps Toward a Lunar Space Elevator
Space Elevator Concept LiftPort Group There's only one it's-the-future-why-don't-we-have-x trope that rivals the flying car, and that's the space elevator. (First proposed in 1895, it might even predate it.) The idea of a giant tower that can carry us from Earth to outer space is legend, and it probably will be for a long time. But a company has successfully Kickstarted what they say is their first step to building one on the Moon. At $8,000, the project from LiftPort Group wasn't going to get us an elevator right away, even if as of writing the team has raised more than $15,000. Instead it's funding an early, related project: sending a robot two kilometers up via a cable and building a test platform of high-altitude balloons that are tethered to the ground. It's not a stretch to think they'll able to reach that goal, since they pretty much already have. LiftPort...