ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,371,919, issued on July 29, was assigned to Trans Astronautica Corp. (Lake View Terrace, Calif.).
"Pneumatically supported towers for low gravity" was invented by Joel C. Sercel (Lake View Terrace, Calif.), James G. Small (Sonoita, Ariz.), Philip J. Wahl (Alta Dena, Calif.) and Craig E. Peterson (Los Angeles).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Pneumatically supported towers for low gravity applications are disclosed herein. In one aspect, an inflatable tower for use in vacuum environments can have a membrane configured to support a load when inflated with an inflation gas to a pressures less than 100,000 pascals and greater than 0.01 pascal. ...