Google Inc (GOOG): The Company’s 5 Most Secretive R&D Projects

No.4 Space Elevator

Photo Credit: Skyway

A space elevator is not a new idea. Actually, the concept of a space elevator was proposed by Russian and Soviet rocket scientist, Konstantin Tsiolkovski, who in 1896 proposed an idea about a a free-standing tower reaching from the surface of Earth to the height of geostationary orbit. So, now Google might be really working on one of these. If they succeed, the elevator will permit transport along the cable from a planetary surface, such as the Earth’s, directly into space or orbit, without the use of large rockets.