It was one small climb for the space elevator last week at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge.
From high atop the roof of MIT’s Cecil and Ida Green Building, a tether was lowered to the ground as curious onlookers watched the display in suspended belief under snowy conditions.
A scale model of a robot lifter successfully made its way up the lengthy ribbon, under the watchful eye of Michael Laine, president and founder of LiftPort Incorporated. Based in Bremerton, Washington, LiftPort is a for-profit company devoted to the commercial development of an elevator to space. The lifter was designed by LiftPort's David Shoemaker.
A lifter is a robotic cargo and construction car, a key element of the space elevator mass transportation system that would stretch from an ocean platform up, up and way beyond geosynchronous orbit.
The event was part of SpaceVision 2004, hosted November 11-14 by the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) and the MIT Mars Society.
pic here
The space elevator is really picking up steam, eh?
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