Japan to conduct world’s first test as part of space elevator project
5th September, 2018Category: International
A team of researchers from Japan's Shizuoka University and other institutions working to develop a “space elevator†will conduct a first trial this month, blasting off a miniature version of the apparatus and monitoring equipment on satellites to test the technology. This test is the first exploring the movement of a container on a cable in space. Two ultra-small cubic satellites measuring 10 centimeters on each side connected by a steel cable about 10 metres long will hitch a ride on an H-2B rocket being launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency from Kagoshima's Tanegashima Space Center to the International Space Station on Sept. 11.
The idea was first proposed in 1895 by Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky after he saw the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and was revisited nearly a century later in a novel by Arthur C. Clarke. But technical barriers have always kept plans stuck at the conceptual stage.
Read More: Japan Times, The Hindu, CNET