Tsiolkovsky's first mistake was recommending a rigid, fixed tower instead of a cable, since it would have to support its considerable weight from below as opposed to simply being lowered from above. The idea is simple indeed, so simple that it was first proposed in 1895, when Russian rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the philosopher father of such later greats as Robert Goddard and Sergei Korolyev, envisioned a giant tower linked to a "celestial castle" that would allow easy access to the then unreachable cosmos.
When you get to the orbital altitude you want, open the door (don't forget your helmet!) and hop out. Just attach an elevator car, hit the up button, and you can climb easily into the sky. The space elevator is exactly what its name says it is: a long cable anchored at one end to the ground and at the other end high in space, protruding from the planet like a spoke in a rotating orange. Maybe, but here's an important hint for aspiring futurists: "within 50 years" is almost always geek-speak for "Like, um, never?" Here's why. That's cool news, and it made for cool quotes, with the New York Times referring dreamily to Google's "100 shoot-for-the-stars ideas" and the Irish Times predicting confidently that "the space elevator may well replace rockets in 50 years." (See photos of the top 10 strangest things sent into space.) The space elevator has been back in the news lately because of tech-world buzz that Google X the secret Skunk Works where the company that gave us great doodles, a good Web browser and so-so e-mail has included it on its list of what-if technologies it's trying to help develop. And unlike the tie too, it probably never will not in this lifetime at least. No? Well never mind, because unlike the bolo tie, it doesn't exist. If you're not familiar with the space elevator, perhaps you've heard it referred to by one of its other names: the bean stalk, the orbital tether, the nonsynchronous orbital skyhook. Follow ideas just refuse to go away: trickle-down economics, the bolo tie, couscous.
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