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The initial proposition came from Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who envisioned a structure akin to a tower reaching into space. This idea evolved over the decades, with significant contributions from scientists like Yuri Arutyunov and Jerome Pearson, who emphasized the use of a tether connected to a geostationary satellite. These early 20th-century theories were brought to popular imagination by science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, whose novel "The Fountains of Paradise" illustrated the concept through a fictional narrative.