The US Patent and Trademark Office has awarded a patent to Canadian space company Thoth Technology for its proposed space elevator, which is designed to take astronauts into the stratosphere, and to launch rockets.
Named ThothX Tower, the free-standing building would reach 20km above the earth and be 20 times higher than the tallest existing structures.
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If ever built, the technology would help reduce the costs of transporting cargo and people into space.
Inventor Brendan Quine said: "Astronauts would ascend to 20km by electrical elevator.
"From the top of the tower, space planes will launch in a single stage to orbit, returning to the top of the tower for refuelling and re-flight."
Believed to be cheaper alternative to launching heavy rockets, space elevators have the potential to transform the access to space.
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By GlobalDataThe technology incorporates reusable hardware, and is claimed to save more than 30% of the fuel used by a conventional rocket.
Thoth president and CEO Caroline Roberts said that the ThothX tower, along with proposed self-landing rocket technologies, will herald a new era of space transportation.
Roberts said: "Landing on a barge at sea level is a great demonstration, but landing at 12 miles above sea level will make space flight more like taking a passenger jet."
US-based SpaceX is working on self-landing rockets and has so far trialled several attempts to recover its Falcon 9 rocket, on a sea barge.
Image: An artistic impression of Thoth Technology’s proposed space elevator. Photo: courtesy of Thoth Technology.
