LiftPort Group endorses new national vision

"Laine, who co-founded HighLift Systems, the Seattle-based company that completed the Phase II research report for NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) for building a space elevator, continued: “We see the space elevator as an important infrastructure element for the expansion of commerce and human travel into space and complimentary to the new national vision for the program.”

Under LiftPort’s proposal, the first commercial space elevator would stretch 62,000 miles into space, and would act as a “railroad” that could transport cargo and ultimately humans to the Moon, Mars and beyond. The elevator would be constructed from a carbon nanotube composite ribbon anchored to an offshore sea platform and to a small counterweight in space. Robotic “lifters” attached to the ribbon would carry cargo ranging from satellites to solar powered panels and eventually humans, reducing launch costs from $10,000-$20,000 per pound, to approximately $500 per pound.

According to LiftPort, the first commercial space elevator could be operational as early as 2018. Key developmental milestones planned by LiftPort in 2004 include two major tests of the robotic lifters, including one using a high altitude balloon."