Japan to test mini ‘space elevator’

Japan to test mini ‘space elevator’

News:

1. Japan to test mini space elevator, the world’s first experiment to test travel between two mini-satellites in space.

Important facts

2. The idea was first proposed in 1895 by Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky after he saw the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and revisited nearly a century later in a novel by Arthur C. Clarke.

3. The test equipment is produced by a researcher at Shizuoka University in collaboration with Japanese construction firm Obayashi

4. It will ride on an H-2B rocket being launched by Japan space agency from the southern Island of Taneagashima next week.

5. The test involves a miniature elevator stand in — a box just 6 cm long, 3 cm wide, and 3 cm high.

6. The mini-elevator will travel along the cable from a container in one of the satellites. “It’s going to be the world’s first experiment to test elevator movement in space,”

7. The movement of the motorized “elevator” box will be monitored with cameras in the satellites.

8. Shizuoka University and Obayashi are also collaborating for exploring other ways to build its own space elevator to put tourist in space in 2050.