Dieter Holger reports that expensive, unsustainable rockets have served as our primary means to lift payloads and personnel into space, but space elevators present a cheaper way to enter outer space. Although new materials are needed (and may already be available .... via graphine nanotubes, grids, and sheets), space-elevator missions are in motion and we could see the first elevator constructed in the next several decades.
Getting into space with rockets is ridiculously expensive. A NASA Inspector General report says the agency will pay Russia $491.2 million to send six astronauts into space in 2018. That is almost $82 million a seat. And depending on what company you launch a satellite with, it costs between $10 to $30 million for every metric ton you send into space, The Motley Fool reported this year. But there is a vastly more affordable answer to rockets ... space elevators.
Forward-thinking people have considered the idea of space elevators since 1895 when the Eiffel Tower inspired Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. Tsiolkovksy reasoned if a tower was built 35,800 kilometers (22,236 miles) high, it would reach geostationary orbit and could carry payloads to outer space. His concept is not too far off from current thinking.
A 2002 NASA study by Dr. Brad Edwards re-invigorated the scientific community with what is considered the modern-day space elevator. According to the study, a flexible and durable cable with a space station counterweight could serve as a viable space elevator. A mechanical climber... using magnetic levitation or rollers along the tether ... would then carry many tons of equipment or people into orbit. Although such a project would cost in the tens of billions, it would eventually pay for itself by providing much cheaper space travel to a greatly expanded market.
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