A consortium of scientists and industrial firms has formulated a plan to build a 'space elevator' that would dramatically lower the cost of getting into orbit.

The Japan Space Elevator Association has published plans for the structure, which it estimates could be put in place for as little as $9bn.

The group believes that the project would revolutionise the cost of satellite communications systems, and make orbital manufacture economically feasible.

"Just like travelling abroad, anyone will be able to ride the elevator into space," Shuichi Ono, chairman of the Japan Space Elevator Association, told The Times.

The plan calls for the use of carbon nanotubes attached to a fixed platform in orbit and extending to a base station on Earth.

These would need to be about four times as strong as existing nanotubes but the strength of such materials has increased a hundredfold in the past five years.

Elevators attached to the tubes could be powered by electricity, dramatically reducing the cost of moving materials into orbit.

Orbital manufacturing has many advantages over Earth-based production, not least vast amounts of available solar power.

Nasa has already shown the ease of growing perfect crystals in zero gravity, and other exotic materials could also be produced more easily in such conditions.

In addition, the lower cost of getting into orbit would cut the cost of setting up satellite communications systems to those parts of the world where landlines are uneconomic.

The concept of a space elevator was first conceived by Russian rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, but was popularised by Arthur C Clarke in his book The Fountains of Paradise.