Build A Space Elevator From Scratch

Words: 384
Pages: 2

The idea of a space elevator has been around for over a century, and it is a common dream of space scientists and engineers. A space elevator is a tether descends from a spacecraft in geostationary orbit to a floating platform. Mark Harris discusses the possibility of building a space elevator in his article “How to Build a Space Elevator from Scratch”. First of all, Harris points out that the fundamental obstacle to build a space elevator is lack of strong materials. He lists and analyzes several promising materials, and they all turn out to be unusable. However, scientists have the chance to improve strength as they gain more knowledge about other materials. For instance, Mark Haase, a materials engineer from the University of Cincinnati,