Below is a link to an article about some plans to build an elevator to go to a orbiting space station. If this was being done in America (not to say this won’t happen anyway) I would expect to see a McDonalds and maybe a small version of Wal-Mart on the Space station. Maybe even a Kum & Go or a Casey’s on the way up.
So is there a restroom in the elevator? I mean that’s a long way up. People are either going to need to go, or get air sick.
Kidding aside, I think this is really cool, but I have a hard time picturing the elevator shaft itself. Is it solid or is it flexible for the space station to make adjustments? What exactly besides the station is holding up such a tall, skinny, vertical structure?
One last joke, in the event of a fire or power failure will there be stairs that go up along the elevator?
Take your pick. I put up different links because some of the lesser detailed articles had better illustrations. And another one just for fun.
http://www.techtree.com/India/Future_Watch/Japan_To_Skip_Stairway_Build_Elevator_To_Heaven/551-93524-505.html
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/theampersand/archive/2008/09/23/recent-progress-made-in-the-field-of-convert..
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/24/2372988.htm?site=science&topic=latest
