Inflatable tower could climb to the edge of space

[anon]

A GIANT inflatable tower could carry people to the edge of space without the need for a rocket, and could be completed much sooner than a cable-based space elevator, its proponents claim.

Inflatable pneumatic modules already used in some spacecraft could be assembled into a 15-kilometre-high tower, say Brendan Quine, Raj Seth and George Zhu at York University in Toronto, Canada, writing in Acta Astronautica (DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2009.02.018). If built from a suitable mountain top it could reach an altitude of around 20 kilometres, where it could be used for atmospheric research, tourism, telecoms or launching spacecraft.

Inflatable tower could climb to the edge of space - space - 08 June 2009 - New Scientist

[alpacino]

Nice, pneumatic babel towers LOL

[slikrapid]

their story does sound a bit, well, inflated

i'd like to see some kind of working prototype with simulated conditions expected in space, for now it is still science fiction like