Patent for a 20 kilometer tall tower for space launch and research

Thoth Technology, a Canadian tech company, has recently filed a patent for a 12.4 mile high (i.e. about 20 kilometer tall reaching the stratosphere, and about 20 times higher as compared to Dubai’s Burj Khalifa) “space elevator” that can become an alternative to rocket for astronauts, i.e. this invention will help to launch astronauts as well as tourists into orbit.

According to the patent of the company, it will be an inflatable, pneumatically pressured tower having a liftoff point (platform to launch) to space at the top. According to the company, this invention will help to save over 30% of the fuel of a conventional rocket.

“From the top of the tower, space planes will launch in a single stage to orbit, returning to the top of the tower for refueling and reflight,” stated Brendan Quine, who is the inventor of the ThothX Tower.

This invention will help to launch the rocket in a horizontal manner by removing the requirement for vertical launch, i.e. flight will be much like a passenger plane.

“In our concept, you ascend electrically and remove the whole vertical launch phase,” Quine stated. “Then you get into a space plane, which is like a passenger jet, and take off horizontally.”

This tower will serve not only for the launch of astronauts but it would also help in the generation of wind-energy, scientific research, communications, and tourism (as told earlier).

It is still on the paper but patent is showing that the company has moved a step to bring the physical product.

Source: Thoth Technology (http://thothx.com/news-2/)