LiftPort Startup Plans Space Elevator On The Moon

If you’re at all interested in space exploration, you’ve probably already heard of LiftPort, the company behind the Space Elevator, which has been in the works for the better part of a decade. The plan is to build an elevator that travels along a high-tech ribbon between the Earth and a platform in space, and another that tethers a platform to the moon. Ships could then move from one to the other. Far-fetched as it might sound, the elevator has received plenty of attention from the burgeoning space industry – including NASA, which provided the initial research. Now, LiftPort is asking for your help achieving an important step in the overall project: Tethered Towers.

According to Michael Laine, LiftPort’s founder, it’s easier to build from the moon tether than the Earth tether. But before the Lunar Elevator portion of the project gets underway, LiftPort is undertaking an experiment that doubles as training for the LiftPort team’s new members: Build a test platform with high-altitude balloons and create a robot that can climb 2 kilometers to the platform.

That’s the project being funded by initially by Kickstarter, and it’s already passed the goal of $8,000. In fact, the project is sitting at more than $21,900 with 15 days to go. If you want to get in on the action, check out the rewards at KickStarter.