From water to the skies...

with a high altitude balloon up to the frontier of space:

»»» http://www.ssc.se/?id=15425



"We want to enable experiments in the absence of gravity. Up there, the air is so thin that objects falling down are virtually weightless. We make use of this fact", Speidel explains. "The experiment is made up of a nacelle that is connected to the balloon via a long cord."

The experiment tries to show that low gravity can be reached at much lower costs than current approaches (such as parabolic flights or drop towers). The project is a feasibility study of the technique that can be used to create a low gravity environment.

Space Elevator?

Image source: Wikimedia

A space elevator is a proposed structure designed to transport material from a celestial body's surface into space. Many variants have been proposed, all of which involve traveling along a fixed structure instead of using rocket powered space launch. The concept most often refers to a structure that reaches from the surface of the Earth on or near the Equator to geostationary orbit (GSO) and a counter-mass beyond...

»»» http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator


The Vision

Climbers ascend a ribbon, 100,000 km long, strung between an anchor on Earth and a counterweight in space. Connecting Earth and space in a way never before possible, the space elevator will enable us to inexpensively and completely expand our society into space.

Beyond Earth, space elevators on the moon and Mars open new economic opportunities and expand humanity's reach ever so slightly into the solar system...

»»» http://www.spaceelevator.com/