Microsoft hosts conference discussing elevator to space

This video was produced by NOVA/PBS.

It sounds straight out of science fiction: an elevator ride that takes you to space and back.

How is that possible? Scientists are gathering in Redmond this weekend to try to figure it out.

Microsoft is sponsoring the 2009 Space Elevator Conference, a four-day long event with movies, presentations, and workshops where engineers and entrepreneurs gather to discuss the technical and logistical issues of building an actual elevator to space.

“It’s bringing top people around to present ideas from a research standpoint and a business standpoint,” said conference spokesperson Melinda Young. “We’re talking about a way to supplement travel to space by rockets.”

While the fantasy of a space elevator has been around for about 100 years, the idea became slightly more realistic by the 1991 discovery of “carbon nanotubes,” tiny atoms that can come together and make a cylinder. The elevator is built around the idea of a ribbon and tether that could lift people thousands of miles into the sky. The problem is that the tether technology right now is weak.

“It hasn’t been developed that it will be strong enough to support the space elevator,” said conference presenter Robert McLin.

That’s why they’re holding the “Space Elevator Games,” a section of NASA’s Centennial Challenges program where contestants will compete to build a tether strong enough to support a heavy mass like a space elevator. If someone figures it out, the prize could be up to $2 million.

“It’s a process,” said Young. “Nobody’s ever built something that extends 62,000 miles.”

The idea sounds cool, but Young says a space elevator couldn’t be realistic for several decades (at least). The technology is taking baby steps, not to mention the billions of dollars it would take to build such a thing.

Still, conference-goers continue to dream.

“It has to be marketed to the space movie fans,” said McLin. “A science fiction enthusiast always wants science fiction to be real.”

Conference registration costs range from $40 to $300, and you can sign up online.


Kailani Koenig-Muenster