Feasibility of 20 Km Free - Standing Inflatable Space Tower

One of the most demanding current mega engineering projects on Earth is to build a space elevator for various space applications. The current trend in new inflatable structure applications lends itself to study for the preliminary engineering design analysis of the space tower. Today, to access outer space, conventional chemical rockets are the only method in use. This method is extremely inefficient since a sizeable amount of energy is consumed during the flight to overcome the depth of the gravity potential energy well and to overcome atmospheric drag. As a result, launch costs per kilogramme of the payloads are very high from Earth to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). For applications involving the extensive utilization of space such as space colonization, much cheaper and efficient launch methods are required. The space tower, one of the alternatives to conventional chemical rockets, is proposed as an efficient means to access space with reduced environmental damage to the atmosphere. A tower can be utilized as a launching station at a sufficient altitude for space flight to occur. The work done is significantly less because the losses due to atmospheric drag and propulsive efficiency are almost eliminated by using a space elevator system. The transport system for the space tower could comprise electrically powered cabins carrying payloads and tourists vertically along the length of the tower. Fixed observatories can be installed at different altitudes along the stations in the near-space environment. These fixed stations, provided at different heights, would be advantageous being closer and fixed to Earth compared to geostationary systems.