Japan To Test Mini 'Space Elevator' (phys.org)

Zorro shares a report from Phys.Org: A Japanese team working to develop a "space elevator" will conduct a first trial this month, blasting off a miniature version on satellites to test the technology. The test equipment, produced by researchers at Shizuoka University, will hitch a ride on an H-2B rocket being launched by Japan's space agency from southern island of Tanegashima next week. The test involves a miniature elevator stand-in -- a box just six centimeters (2.4 inches) long, three centimeters wide, and three centimeters high. If all goes well, it will provide proof of concept by moving along a 10-meter cable suspended in space between two mini satellites that will keep it taut. The mini-elevator will travel along the cable from a container in one of the satellites. The movement of the motorized "elevator" box will be monitored with cameras in the satellites.

Comments

That's fine for Japanese

[Opportunist]

6cm long, 3 cm wide, 3cm high, works for Japanese, that's the average size of a Japanese apartment, but what about the rest of us?

Typical, don't waste a moment to think about those damn gaijins.

Re: That's fine for Japanese

[Anonymous Coward]

They rarely design for overweight Americans in space.

Re: That's fine for Japanese

[Opportunist]

That's an optical illusion. Americans are so overweight that they SEEM like a continent.

Re:Tsiolkovsky [Re:Space Elevator....]

[DontBeAMoran]

He had a lot to say. But his thought experiment was a tower, not a tether.

If we're talking about towers, I think some guy named Nimrod might have him beat by a few dozen centuries.

it's bigger on the inside

[Thud457]

"What is this, a space elevator for ANTS?!"