The ThothX Tower is a space launch platform tower design by

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astrona ...

company Thoth Technologies ( ThothX). It is not a full

space elevator A space elevator, also referred to as a space bridge, star ladder, and orbital lift, is a proposed type of planet-to-space transportation system, often depicted in science fiction. The main component would be a cable (also called a tether) anc ...

, but a

inflatable An inflatable is an object that can be inflated with a gas, usually with air, but hydrogen, helium and nitrogen are also used. One of several advantages of an inflatable is that it can be stored in a small space when not inflated, since inflata ...

tubular tower structure in diameter, using

elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...

s to transfer up and down to the

stratospheric The stratosphere () is the second layer of the atmosphere of the Earth, located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere. The stratosphere is an atmospheric layer composed of stratified temperature layers, with the warm layers of air hi ...

platform where

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...

s would land, refuel, load, and launch from to reach and return from

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as a p ...

. It is projected that a launch from the top of the tower would save 30% of the fuel needed to reach orbit. From the top of the tower, the horizon would be away. The design has received UK and U.S. patent protection. The design is projected to cost and take 10 years to build. The full-sized tower would be about 20x taller than the tallest building as of 2015,

Burj Khalifa The Burj Khalifa (; ar, برج خليفة, , Khalifa Tower), known as the Burj Dubai prior to its inauguration in 2010, is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is known for being the world’s tallest building. With a total height ...

of Self-climbing electric elevators would travel within the inflated structure to convey material between the top platform and base. The cars would either run in the tower or along the outside and would carry about . Normal elevator cables cannot stretch longer than high. The tower would be built out of stacked

kevlar Kevlar (para-aramid) is a strong, heat-resistant synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed by Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont in 1965, the high-strength material was first used commercially in the early 1970s a ...

cells inflated to extreme pressures with

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...

helium Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...

gas.

Flywheel A flywheel is a mechanical device which uses the conservation of angular momentum to store rotational energy; a form of kinetic energy proportional to the product of its moment of inertia and the square of its rotational speed. In particular, ass ...

s would be used to stabilize the structure, as the structure is much too tall for

guywire A guy-wire, guy-line, guy-rope, or stay, also called simply a guy, is a tensioned Wire rope, cable designed to add stability to a free-standing structure. They are used commonly for Mast (sailing), ship masts, radio masts and towers, radio mast ...

s to work. The tower is designed to be able to survive Category 5 hurricanes. With the reduction in fuel needed to reach orbit, it is projected that

single-stage-to-orbit A single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) vehicle reaches orbit from the surface of a body using only propellants and fluids and without expending tanks, engines, or other major hardware. The term usually, but not exclusively, refers to reusable vehicles ...

craft can be practicably used with current technology. The tower is high as most orbital rockets go up before curving towards orbit, and this tower could eliminate that portion of flight. A tower model was unveiled in 2009. A demonstration tower is planned to be built. The basic design may be extended to towers. Among other projected uses for the tower would be as a communications tower, low-altitude replacement for satellites, high-altitude wind turbine platforms.

References

Further reading