This Could be What we Need to Make the Space Elevator a Reality!

What we need is an ultra- strong fiber! A new fiber has been developed by a research team in china, making a space elevator look that much more feasible. According to South China Morning Post, a team from Tsinghua University has built a fiber from something called carbon nanotube. It is said that 1 cm of the fiber wouldn’t break under the weight of 160 elephants. Being as strong as this fiber is, it also weighs less than current ropes/fibers used. 

 The idea of a space elevator has been around for more than a century. Yet, the idea never made it past mathematical and physical models. This is all due to the fact that no material has been found that is strong enough to build a unit, until now.

 There are a lot of theories regarding space elevators. The main idea involves sending a large satellite into orbit that would lower a cable to the ground and be anchored. There would be another cable that would go in the opposite direction used as the counterweight. Theoretically, the lift would then be suspended between the two cables. The lift would use gravity and centrifugal force in order to work.

Though the development of this cable is a big step, it is too soon to tell what can be done. 

Courtesy of South China Morning Post