Thing is, if you use helium, a lot of the weight of the structure is canceled by buoyancy, and you don’t need as much of a taper in cross-section between top and bottom of the tower*. So the tower won’t require a huge base to support a narrow top; the taper might easily be less than 10 to 1. The taper can just come from decreasing the circumference of the cylindrical inflatable modules as you go up the tower, no special shapes needed. There’s a photo of a model at http://www.newscientist.com/articleimages/mg20227117.000/1-inflatable-tower-could-climb-to-the-edge-of-space.html

* Remembering that a tower is operating in compression and an elevator tape is operating in tension, that taper change is equivalent to the change in required taper when the tensile strength of a tape is increased.

I’ve seen this story all over the net. Have you seen any pictures of it. My visual imagination is not all that great, but I can’t see this thing without a gynormous base. If you see any real models or pictures, I’d love to see them.

I want it to happen, but it’s awfully hard to get my hear around.

Rick York