If the thinking of three York University scientists has been sound, they just might have the world at the end of a tether. Writing recently in science journal Acta Astronautica, Brendan Quine, Raj Seth and George Zhu have come up with a concept and prototype to create a giant inflatable tower that could carry people to the edge of space.

The three scientists have come up with a plan that could be used to create a 20-kilometre tower using inflatable modules that could house a space elevator and be used for research, tourism and telecommunications.

"The concept of a space tether that went all the way up to a space station is that if you can ascend the tether electrically or by other means, you could gain access directly to space. You wouldn't need chemical rockets, with their danger and often environmental consequences," Quine said.

"What we're developing is something much smaller than that. It would be about 20 kilometres high, and instead of being built from space, it would be built up from the ground. We would realize this from basically using gas pressure to support the colossal weight of the building. Even in the 20-kilometre tower, we're talking about something that's twice the mass of a supertanker."

The idea for a space elevator or tether was first posited by Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1895. Arthur C. Clarke popularized it in fiction in 1978 in his book, The Fountains of Paradise, but throughout the 20th century, it is an idea that has had many proponents.

More recently, there have been attempts to turn the idea into a reality by New Jersey's Liftport Group and the Japan Space Elevator Association.

One of main stumbling blocks is that current construction technology is not advanced enough to create a material that is strong and light enough to support the massive weight of an Earth-based elevator and withstand the stress pressures of the altitude and atmosphere. Some scientists believe that carbon nanotubes might be the answer.

But the York paper provides a much simpler solution to some of the inherent problems, using modules that are already being used in some spacecraft.

"One of our proposed concepts is that you build 150-metre sections of the tower on the ground, and they consist of pneumatically inflatable compartments made of, say, a material like Kevlar," Quine said.

"Some of them are will be used for an elevator shaft for access and the rest would be for structural support using gas pressure, or machinery to control the tower. Then you make 100 of these components and stack them on top of each other, until you achieve a 20-kilometre tower."

The modules would be filled with air, helium and/or hydrogen, depending on how elevated the module would be. Quine also believes that it would likely need to be built in a remote area, possibly on a mountain, so that it would get a bit of a head start.

As well, the tower could theoretically be extended up to 200 kilometres. At this point though, Quine and his team have built two-, three- and seven-metre prototypes to test the concept. The idea has been picked up by media outlets around the world, and Quine plans to host a demonstration of the prototypes in coming weeks.

Space tourism is also seen as an area of great potential for this project. Quine says a 20-kilometre tower could provide an experience close to what astronauts have – with the added bonus of normal gravity.

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"If we created a 20-kilometre-high tower, from the ground it would take you 40 minutes to ascend to the top of the tower, and if you got up there, the view would be extremely similar to being in space. You would basically have the view that astronauts have, the black of space, the bright rim of the Earth where the sunlight scatters on the atmosphere and the outline of the continents," he says.

"We estimate that you could see 600 kilometres in any direction."