Man really just can't be kept in his own backyard, eh?

In the desire to extend mankind's reach to outer space more easily, space elevators, as theoretical structures, have been designed to transport material from the planet's surface into space. However, these space elevators will probably take years before they can actually come to fruition.

What we do have, in the meantime, are balloon-borne platforms developed as precursors to space elevators. The good thing about these platforms is that we don't have to wait for the space elevators before we could put it to good use. Hopes are high that the space elevator-tethers could be used as high-altitude relay stations for wireless communications, following a 60-day field test outcome.

Stretching some 1.6 kilometers of cable (1 mile) up into the Arizona air in January 2006, LiftPort Group used a cluster of three balloons in pursuit of the space elevator technology. That test lasted for only 6 hours. But not one to give up easily (and so early, at that), LiftPort now has successfully performed a 60-day test with a 100-meter-long tether held together by four helium balloons to see what kinds of problems they would most likely encounter if such a platform were used to transmit WiFi signals.

Michael Lane, the company president, says that the platforms would be especially useful for providing Wi-Fi coverage to rural areas. Apart from this, they also tested their climbing robot on the tether, as the robot will be necessary in the future for delivering new helium tanks to balloons at higher altitudes.

While the test went well, what did pose some of the problems during the test was some unexpected encounters with curious wildlife. Apparently, bats flew around the balloons during the first few days because they were attracted by the sounds from the tether's vibrations. Joining the party were more than a dozen insect colonies laying eggs on the tether, as well as swallows swooping in for some morning dew visit later on in the test.

LiftPort is currently in cooperation with North Carolina State University and Rutgers University to develop a 5-kilometer (3-mile) tether system. NASA is also supporting these projects for a space elevator, and will actually host the second round of NASA's Beam Power and Tether Centennial Challenges competitions to spur the development of technology required for a space elevator. The competition is slated on the 20th and 21st of October.