Going up: Slow progress on 'space elevator'

Disney World, Epcot, Universal Studios and ... Space Orlando. In the future, Florida could be the site of a simulated "elevator" that allows people to check out life on a space station, virtually.

That's one dream of Bradley Edwards, president of Black Line Ascension and one of the leading proponents of space elevators. The center, which would be a combined entertainment and research facility, could help solve one of the many critical issues plaguing the concept of a space elevator, namely a lack of funding.

At the first space elevator conference in four years, this time in Redmond, Washington, on Microsoft's campus, Edwards announced that he is investigating the feasibility of a combined entertainment and research center, to be called Space Orlando, designed to help fund the building of a space elevator. The cluster of buildings would comprise 2 million square feet (929,030 square meters) and a 10-story-high structure that visitors could enter as if they were walking into a terminal for a real space elevator. They'd buy a ticket, enter the climber vehicle and feel like they're ascending into space, thanks to virtual reality technologies.

They'd step off the climber into space -- or really, a massive room lined with plasma screens displaying what it would look like to be on a space station, looking out into the solar system.

The entertainment facility would also be a working research center. "Wrapped into it are real research labs with glass walls, unfortunately for the researchers," Edwards joked. Visitors would be able to observe the technology the researchers are working on, such as a habitat for people in space.

Edwards estimates the facility would cost US$500 million to $1 billion to build and would attract 8 million visitors a year. Their entrance tickets would help fund the research and development of a space elevator. As Edwards envisions it, a real space elevator, as opposed to a simulated version, would consist of a very long "ribbon" made of carbon nanotubes stretching from a platform on Earth into geosynchronous altitude, around 22,000 miles (35,406 kilometers) above Earth's surface. Lightweight cars would attach to the ribbon and ride up into space. Travel time to the geosynchronous altitude: eight days, moving at 120 miles per hour.

The center could be a relatively easy way to fund research, he said. "Applying for NASA grants is a bit more of a challenge for getting funding," he said. To date, only about $570,000 in funding has been dedicated to the concept of the space elevator in total, he said. "Nobody's getting paid for this," he said.

There are a number of other hurdles, in addition to the funding issue. Technically, scientists are still working out how to piece together carbon nanotube strands at the length required.

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