The space-elevator test equipment will be launched on a Japanese H-2B rocket next week A Japanese team working to develop a "space elevator" will conduct a first trial this month, blasting off a miniature version on satellites to test the technology. 
 
 The test equipment, produced by researchers at Shizuoka University, will hitch a ride on an H-2B rocket being launched by Japan's space agency from southern island of Tanegashima next week. 
 
 The test involves a miniature elevator stand-in—a box just six centimetres (2.4 inches) long, three centimetres wide, and three centimetres high. 
 
 If all goes well, it will provide proof of concept by moving along a 10-metre cable suspended in space between two mini satellites that will keep it taut. 
 
 The mini-elevator will travel along the cable from a container in one of the satellites. 
 
 "It's going to be the world's first experiment to test elevator movement in space," a university spokesman told AFP on Tuesday. 
 
 The movement of the motorised "elevator" box will be monitored with cameras in the satellites. 
 
 It is still a far cry from the ultimate beam-me-up goals of the project, which builds on a long history of "space elevator" dreams. 
 
 The idea was first proposed in 1895 by Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky after he saw the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and was revisited nearly a century later in a novel by Arthur C. Clarke. 
 
 But technical barriers have always kept plans stuck at the conceptual stage. 
 
 Japanese construction firm Obayashi, which is collaborating with the Shizuoka university project, is also exploring other ways to build its own space elevator to put tourists in space in 2050. 
 
 The company has said it could use carbon nanotube technology, which is more than 20 times stronger than steel, to build a lift shaft 96,000 kilometres (roughly 60,000 miles) above the Earth. 
 
 Explore further: Going up: Japan builder eyes space elevator ||||| Obayashi Corporation 
 
 Elon Musk may not believe in space elevators yet, but Japan is taking a step forward to realise the dream of travelling to space by elevators instead of the traditional rocket. 
 
 A team of researchers from Japan's Shizuoka University and other institutions will conduct the first test in space this month as part of a project to build a space elevator, Japan's The Mainichi reported last week. The space elevator essentially ferries people and cargo shipments in an elevator car travelling on a cable connecting Earth to a space station. 
 
 This test is the first exploring the movement of a container on a cable in space. Two ultra-small cubic satellites measuring 10 centimeters on each side connected by a steel cable about 10 metres long will be carried from Kagoshima's Tanegashima Space Center to the International Space Station on Sept. 11. 
 
 From there, the connected satellites will be launched and a motorised container acting as an elevator car will travel along the cable and have its journey recorded via a camera attached to the satellites. 
 
 The project's technical advisor, Japan's construction giant Obayashi Corporation, is also working on a similar project, though it previously said it expects to deliver a space elevator by 2050. 
 
 The Mainichi identified a number of obstacles researchers face. These include the development of special cables that are resistant to high-energy cosmic rays (Obayashi said carbon nanotubes are a strong candidate as the cables' material), the transmission of electricity from Earth to space and keeping cosmic elevators safe from collisions with space debris and meteorites. 
 
 Space elevators are expected to cut the costs -- and risks -- of space travel massively if they can be realized. While cargo would typically cost about $22,000 per kilogram via shuttle, Obayashi's elevator will cut that to about $200. Researchers also expect these elevators to travel up to 200 kilometers per hour and arrive at the ISS eight days after launch, said the publication. 
 
 CNET has reached out to Obayashi and Shizuoka University for comments. 
 
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– It sounds like something out of a science fiction film, but a very real "space elevator" is being developed by researchers at Japan's Shizuoka University, and the first test is coming this month. A miniature stand-in for the real thing will be attached to a rocket and launched by Japan's space agency next week, reports AFP. Once in space, the motorized 2.4-inch-long box will travel along a 32-foot-long cable held taut between two satellites, while cameras monitor its movement. "It's going to be the world's first experiment to test elevator movement in space," a university spokesperson says. A space elevator, the idea of which was first proposed by a Russian scientist in 1895, would travel to a space station via cables connecting the station to Earth, and could drastically reduce the cost of getting cargo to space, CNET explains. But there are a number of technical obstacles, including the need to develop cables that can resist high-energy cosmic rays, the need to keep space debris and meteorites from colliding with the elevator, and the need to transmit electricity from Earth to space. Japanese construction firm Obayashi, which is acting as the technical advisor for researchers on this project, plans to build its own space elevator to allow tourists to reach space by 2050. (A Canadian company is also working on its own space elevator.)