The lift's carriages, which will themselves require new feats of engineering, would move up and down 32,000km-long cables. Those cables would need to be stronger and lighter than any material ever woven. They would be anchored to the ground and disappear into the sky, eventually reaching a satellite docking station orbiting above the Earth. Scientists hope that as well as carrying human passengers, the carriages could also haul huge, solar-powered generators that could power homes and businesses back on Earth. It could also remove barrels of nuclear waste, dumping them into space.

Japan's promise to spend 6.3 billion on the project has sparked swift reaction from other quarters: several competing space lift projects are now believed to be under way, with NASA among those involved. An international conference is to be held in Japan in November, aiming to draw up a detailed timetable for the machine's production. One of the biggest challenges is to develop a fabric for the lift's cables. It must be extremely light while also resilient enough to resist the various matter that it will be struck by in space. It is expected that an answer will be found in carbon nanotubes.