Cow Abductions and The Space Elevator
“A new space race is officially underway,” announced a CNN report. The latest mission would be called, in simple terms, the space elevator. Andrei Kislyakov, writing in Moscow for the RIA news agency, said the construction of a space elevator would become the most grandiose project in human history. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a Russian scientist who was inspired by the Eiffel tower, first proposed the concept of a lift into space in 1895. The Soviet engineer Yury Artsyutanov set forth in detail the concept of a space elevator in 1960, and noted a huge economic upshot that it could turn out.
“The vision has inspired scientists around the world and government organisations including NASA. Several competing space elevator projects are gathering pace as various groups vie to build practical carriages, tethers and the hundreds of other parts required to carry out the plan. There are prizes offered by space elevator-related scientific organisations for breakthroughs and competitions for the best and fastest design of carriage.” (Leo Lewis, "Japan hopes to turn sci-fi into reality with elevator to the stars," The Times, September 22, 2008)