Quietly last week, the FAA gave approval (via Business Wire) to LiftPort Group to begin High Altitude Testing of a robotic lift system into LEO (Low Earth Orbit). This “Space Elevator” has been a shared dream of mine for the last 25 years, and now it looks like it may finally happen.

So what the heck does that mean? Well, in Science Fiction circles it was often referred to as a “Bean Stalk” after the “Jack and the Beanstalk” fame of a vine that grew so tall it entered into another world. In this case the Bean Stalk grows all the way into space and allows an elevator to move up and down the line. A “Space Elevator” in all respects. In the Sixties it was referred to as a “Space Train” (especially in the Soviet Union) and in the has been woven into Science Fiction books like “Friday” by Robert Heinlein and various others. It may be apocryphal, but the idea may have been floated originally by Robert Heinlein himself in the early 50’s. I know from first hand knowledge that Robert Heinlein considered himself the originator for the idea of a Space Elevator, saying to me personally he had written about it in the mid 50’s and the idea floated from there. I cannot find proof of this however.

Anyway, for the first time in human history we may finally have the mean to escape this planet safely and inexpensively. The estimates for the costs is about $10 billion dollars per Bean Stalk and take between 5 and 10 years to build. Imagine, by 2015, the Space Shuttle will no longer be needed and we will have a real foothold in space. Want to vacation in space? No problem. Trip to the Moon? Pricey, but very do-able. Be a migrant to Mars? Absolutely. Beyond? We can go there.

Does anyone think that $10 billion is too much for such a structure? It is the ultimate in cheap travel into space. The fuel to get up the Bean Stalk is electricity (and not very much) and the fuel coming down is electricity. In fact is it negative electricity. The cost of going up is paid by the cost of coming down (the elevator car will actually generate electricity offsetting the cost of the trip up.) Net cost up there and back? Next to nothing. Reliable? How reliable are the trains?

The only way this will be possible is with a revolution in materials science, and that happened (again quietly) last year with the successful fabrication of carbon nano-tubes. Like all tech, the cost for the first one was expensive, but now that we know how, it is a cheap and abundant supply of extremely strong fibers good enough to make this dream happen.

The next step is the “boot strapping” to get things started. A small platform will have to be put in space with to ballasts, a spool or carbon nano-tube fiber, and a mechanism to both lower and drop the weights into earths atmosphere and out further into space. The ballast off set leaving the space platform where it is. As the line drops slowly to earth it will be captured and anchored. Once the top end finishes uncoiling (it has a lot further to go) small robots will wind up and down the thread re-enforcing it. This will go on for years as slowly the beanstalk takes form. Eventually the rest of the platform is lifted up on the space cable and there you have it… a space elevator. Ten years from now… wow.

If the human race was looking for the signal for the next step into our future, this is it. Safe, Cheap, Efficient. Bean Stalk, let’s go!