Solar farms in orbit, nuclear power on the moon, space elevators and interstellar travel — which might we see happen first?

The idea of a space elevator has captured imaginations for decades, but is it actually possible to build one? This video explores the science, engineering challenges, and materials needed to make ...

Humanity's quest to explore—and, perhaps eventually, colonize—outer space has prompted a great many ideas about how precisely to go about it.

For decades, the staggering cost of escaping Earth's gravity has limited our reach into space. Sending just one kilogram into orbit can run tens of thousands of dollars.

Space elevators? Nuclear rockets? The future of space travel could look radically different. Imagine taking an elevator to space. Or blasting off in a nuclear rocket. That might sound like science ...

Space elevators are just theoretical at this point, but a Japanese company hopes to build one in the next 25 years for $100 billion.

Our Future Chronicles column explores an imagined history of inventions and developments yet to come. We journey to 2055, when a space elevator from the moon’s surface to near-Earth orbit was ...

Elevators that would transport humans and cargo to the solar system could become a reality soon, according to a scientist.

Space elevators are often dismissed as a science fiction dream, but I believe they will exist soon—perhaps in two or three decades. Throughout my career as an aerospace engineer and physics ...

Whereas an elevator from Earth would be quite chunky, perhaps ferrying multiple elevator cars up and down simultaneously, the space-line would be a thin wire with a total mass of 40 metric tons.