Japanese construction giant eyeing up a space elevator.

Obayashi Corporation have announced an intention to have a space elevator operational by the year 2050. While acknowledging that current technology can’t build the 96,000 kilometer long cable, they say it’s only a matter of time before technology makes the idea possible.

Robotic cars powered by magnetic linear motors will carry people and cargo to a newly-built space station, at a fraction of the cost of rockets. It will take seven days to get there.

The company said the fantasy can now become a reality because of the development of carbon nanotechnology.

“The tensile strength is almost a hundred times stronger than steel cable so it’s possible,” Mr Yoji Ishikawa, a research and development manager at Obayashi, said.

“Right now we can’t make the cable long enough. We can only make 3-centimetre-long nanotubes but we need much more… we think by 2030 we’ll be able to do it.”