A Tethered Tower being hoisted in a balloon test (Credits: LiftPort).
Space elevators are usually the realm of science fiction, but Michael J. Laine is determined to build a real one. He first founded LiftPort in 2003 to develop technology for a Tethered Tower – a ribbon-like construct stretching towards space for robots to climb. The company encountered economic and legal difficulties and had to disband in 2007. But in the summer of 2012, LiftPort 2.0 came into being. Here, Laine speaks with Moonandback about the new reboot and the 3,468 Kickstarter supporters that made it happen.
Michael J. Laine 01 from Moonandback Media on Vimeo.
![A trajectory analysis that used a computational fluid dynamics approach to determine the likely position and velocity histories of the foam (Credits: NASA Ref [1] p61).](https://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/fluid-dynamics-trajectory-analysis-50x50.jpg)
