Would you spend a night
at the top of the first tower to space?
At 100 km above sea level,
it would be the highest structure
that humans have ever built.
This tower could house
almost a million residents.
But would that be worth the giant price tag of
$25 trillion?
When it comes to building a space tower,
there are a lot of obstacles to plan around.
First, there are the extremely cold temperatures
that could freeze you to death.
Then, there are the Category 5
hurricane winds that could
cause the tower to sway and fall over.
Oh, and did we mention there would be
barely any air pressure at the top?
So you'd likely get altitude sickness,
which could kill you.
But even with all those hazards,
we still think we can build one safe enough
for humans to stay in.
Want to see what it looks like?
Yes, it might look a little strange,
but this is how we'd have to structure our tower
if we don't want it to fall over.
If we didn't shape our tower like a pyramid,
it would buckle under its own weight,
tilt to the side and crash to the ground.
At 100 km (62 mi) tall,
this pyramid would need a base
as large as the area of Hong Kong
to keep it stable.
It would also need a reinforced
core to prevent it from swaying
in the extreme winds found at the
top of our atmosphere.
At 70 km (43 miles) above sea level,
winds of 252 km/h (157 mi/h) can occur,
and the top of our tower
would be 30 km (19 mi) higher than that!
Now that we've got a stable
structure figured out,
we need to find a way to
transport people up to the top.
Traditionally, elevators
are limited to a height of about 500 m (1,640 ft).
After that, they would be too heavy.
So we're going to need something
a little more modern.
Like magnet-powered elevators, for instance.
But even with those,
we'd still be looking at superlong
elevator rides to go up and down.
This would be a serious problem
if we wanted our tower to contain
residences and offices.
One group that would be happy
about these extra-long elevator rides
would be the advertising industry.
Talk about a captive audience!
"Instead of just watching commercial
after commercial,
wouldn’t you rather use all this free time
to get creative,"
and even earn extra money?
Well, you can do that with Vocal!
Vocal is a publishing platform
for creators of all kinds,
like bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers,
and more to connect with
engaged audiences and earn money.
You can promote your latest content
by embedding it in a story on Vocal,
like your most recent YouTube video,
podcast episode,
Spotify song, or more.
There are over 30 topic-based communities
where you can explore your interests.
As a creator on Vocal,
you will earn money
every time your story is read,
and you can earn tips sent from readers.
Vocal also hosts weekly challenges
for your chance to win cash prizes and more.
Here at What If, we’ve been sharing our own
stories on Vocal.
Check out the link in our description box
to read our most recent story,
where we wrote about
what would happen if everyone
stopped drinking coffee.
Spoiler alert: it wouldn’t be good
for these long elevator rides.
So, sign up as a creator on Vocal
today to start earning from your stories
and get connected with a new audience.
You’ve got all this free time these days,
why not put it to good use?
But before we go selling our elevator ad space,
we need to see if it would be safe for us
to go up that high in the first place.
At the top of Mount Everest,
the air pressure is dangerously low,
about 1/3 of the pressure on the ground.
And our space tower
would be 11 times taller than that.
If we didn't regulate the air pressure
inside the skyscraper,
you could experience altitude sickness.
And if we didn't regulate
the temperature in there,
you could freeze to death
by the time you reached the top.
Next we'd have to figure out
how to provide running water
throughout the tower.
It would take a lot of pressure to pump
water up so high.
It would need hundreds of water reservoirs
located on different levels through the building.
These water reservoirs
would be filled in sequence,
with each one being used
to fill the one above,
all the way to the top.
If the residences were to use
as much water as the residents
of the Burj Khalifa do per day,
we estimate that
our space tower
would use about 13 Olympic
size swimming pools of water per day.
And that's a lot to pump up.
And even if we solved all those challenges,
there would still be one underlying issue
that could inevitably sink the whole project.
I'm talking about the Earth's crust.
The Earth’s crust is
only about 30 km (18.6 mi) thick,
with a soft mantle underneath it.
Like a house on unstable soil,
the tower would start to
sink down into the ground over the years,
as the Earth’s crust
would be unable to sustain its weight.
So for now,
maybe we'll just have to settle for the
tall towers we already have.
Or if you really want that nice view from space,
you could always sign up to be
one of the first space tourists.
But that's a story for another WHAT IF.