Credit: Thoth Technology
I’m not an astronaut. I’m a tourist. A full time thrill seeker.
But it doesn’t matter if you’re an astronaut or a tourist, you may soon be able to skyrocket more than 12 miles above the Earth by simply riding an elevator.
Yes, an elevator. Not a rocket. Nada!
Here’s why:
A Canadian space company, Thoth Technology Inc. has received a U.S. patent for a free-standing space elevator that might one day take astronauts (and tourists like me) aloft where they could take space airplanes into Earth's orbit.
The full gist? It’s on Christian Today.
The report says the 12-mile elevator is also to be used for communications and generation of wind energy up to 1 gigawatt. That’s staggering. This could power as many as 700,000 homes.
And no! That’s not a typo. I meant 700,000 homes!
According to Caroline Roberts, CEO of Thoth Technology Inc., "Transformative technologies are always exciting to Thoth. The elevator will enable millions of people to experience the view from near space and reduce dramatically the cost of space exploration, enabling humanity to explore our solar system."
Thoth engineers started working on the design for an area elevator in 2007. Their objective is to build a nearly 1-mile high elevator within 3 to 5 years as a demo of their design and building capability.
They say 12-mile-high elevator, which is estimated to cost about $5 billion in U.S. currency, would be put up in 8 to 10 years.
According to Start Elevator, Burj Khalifa Elevators in Dubai are currently the tallest in the world. But soon, the Thoth Elevator – to be positioned in a free-standing 12.4 mile-high elevator – will become the world's tallest elevator.
For those of you who are thrill seekers like me, here’s where the story gets really interesting: the company says it plans to provide tickets for visitors to ride the elevator for about $1,000.
If you ask me, this is a good fee for such one-hour trip of a life time, 12 miles up above the Earth.
And yes, you can bring your friends on board, as the elevator will have the capacity to take about 1,000 visitors daily.
The only catch is… I have to wait till 2025 to see this happen. It’s not coming soon but it makes me feel so good I can’t wait.