An elevator that travels between Earth and space has been around for some time. An early concept was proposed in 1959 by Russian engineer Yuri Artsutanov. But that far-fetched idea may soon become a reality.

A cable is connected to a floating anchor station at the equator from a satellite counterweight above the geosynchronous orbit. 

The cable can stand up on its own by centrifugal force, which allows a car to travel directly between the Earth and the space station along the cable.

Since the late 1980s, NASA and space agencies in Japan and China have been working together to develop this version of the space elevator. Obayashi Corporation has committed to having its version up and running by 2050, a cost estimated to be $90 billion.

According to a study by Zephyr Penoyre from the University of Cambridge and Emily Sandford from Columbia University, building the 'elevator' to the moon is possible using current materials. NASA and other space agencies take a different approach.

The cable proposed in the study runs from the moon down to Earth, coming to an end in Earth's geosynchronous orbit, 22,236 miles above the surface. 

As a result, the cable would be kept out of the danger zone of lower orbits, where it might be struck by satellites or space debris.  The carbon polymer cord would be constructed from pencil lead and hung from the moon. Costs are estimated in the billions.

Michael Laine, the founder of LiftPort Group, told Fox News that the study looks legit. “The lunar space elevator seems to be independently devised,” he said. Although we had the idea first, it's gratifying to have someone from outside our field figure it out and confirm that it is true.

Laine was a member of the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) research team from 2001 to 2003, which was focused on an Earth elevator concept.

According to Laine, the Earth elevator concept models very well from a mathematical perspective. In real life, there are still many problems with it.'

Material for the cord is one of the problems. From the Earth to the vicinity of the moon, the material would need to be extremely strong.  Carbon nanotubes, hollow tubes of carbon 100 times stronger than steel, could solve the problem, but the technology to make them long isn't there yet.

Space debris is another problem, which is now magnified by the rapidly increasing number of satellites. The number of satellites was only 350 when [NIAC Principle Investigator] Dr. Bradley Edwards and I did this work nearly 20 years ago, Laine explained. 

In the past year alone, 400 satellites were launched, and we're heading to a world where there could be 17,000 satellites, mostly in low earth orbit. Avoiding 17,000 objects is rather challenging. This isn't feasible anymore.'

The Tacoma, Wash.-based company Laine works for switched from Earth elevator development to lunar modeling a few years ago. Astronauts would launch from the ground to lower orbit in LiftPort's concept. From lower orbit, a space tug would get them to Lagrange point 1 (or L1), which is near the moon.

Laine said, 'When we reach L1, we drop the string on the surface of the moon, we drill in and stay there so that one end is firmly anchored into the moon's surface.' Afterward, the string is unspooled toward Earth -- about two-thirds the distance to the Earth from the moon.”

LiftPort's elevator cord, which is the counterweight, has an enormous gap between it and Earth. “Our system has a counterweight whereas the mathematical model [used in the recent study] doesn’t,” he says.

LiftPort's lunar elevator would cost $800 million and take seven to twelve years to build, according to Laine. A lunar elevator would have immense scientific and financial benefits, he said.

He said there is a lot of talk about mining lunar resources. Some people will capture lunar ice and use it as rocket fuel. Minerals will be mined from the Moon by others to use as building blocks for a larger space station at the L1 point.

Astronauts would have a shipyard and docking system on the larger space station. In the future, Laine sees a day when new ships are built that never touch down on Earth and are used for traveling to asteroids or other planets. The thing is, once you construct something, that's when it gets interesting because it becomes the catalyst for everything else to happen.'