We can build a blow-up tower into space - fact
Scientists say air is so good you can blow up a tower with it 15km tall and climb up to space.
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 Space tower becomes World's Best Inflatable Slide
July 3, 2009 4:21 PM
Inflatable Space Tower
Air. It's pretty good.
Good for breathing, good for keeping jumping castles fun and good for putting space in.
And now it's good for reaching space.
Scientists say air is so good you can blow up a tower with it 15km tall and climb up to space.
It would have to be 230m wide and weigh nearly a million tonnes, but strong enough to hold an elevator.
It's entirely possible, says Brendan QUine, who's researched the project at York University in Toronto.
Mr Quine said the tower would have to be filled with some helium - which is a special kind of floaty air - and "anchored to the ground". Obviously.
Oh, and it needs to be tied to a mountain.
He said it would take about 40 minutes to catch an elevator to the top, putting the moon just 356,319km out of reach at its perigee.
Mmm, perigee.
Mr QUine said the tower could eventually be 200km tall.
And no, you wouldn't be floating around without gravity - that's another 29,800km away. But the sky would be black, not blue.
So that's something.
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