Lunar space elevator

Oh, now that I look, I have just one paragraph on that subject in particular, so with your indulgence, let me just paste that below:

Even if moon-based mass drivers remain forever impossible, other means for economically lifting lunar resources into space may be feasible. A "skyhook" or space elevator for the moon is certainly a less difficult technical challenge than one for the Earth, and may even be possible with existing materials. Whereas construction of an Earth skyhook would begin in GEO, the lunar skyhook would start at the L-1 point between the Earth and the moon. If one end is extended to the lunar surface, the Earthward end would reach sufficiently far into the terrestrial gravity well that payloads released from there would end up in an elliptical Earth orbit. Like the mass driver, such a structure would enable transportation of resources off the lunar surface using electricity rather than rocketry. And the electrical costs would be trivial.

Of course when I said the electrical costs would be trivial, I of course meant trivial compared to the alternative of using rocketry to lift the material.

Regards,
Mike Combs

From: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com [mailto:spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Monday, October 7, 2019 2:24 PM
To: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] [spacesettlers] : Lunar space elevator

Yes, the lunar elevator is interesting for being possible with building materials in present mass-use. It doesnt solve problem number one, but it could certainly facilitate use of lunar materials throughout cislunar space.

A while back I wrote an article about some peoples skepticism regarding ONeills lunar mass driver proposal. Although I thought perhaps not all of the skepticism was justified, I did make the point that a lunar elevator provides a plan B for getting raw material off the moon using only electricity.

https://space.nss.org/settlement/MikeCombs/moondust.htm

Regards,
Mike Combs

From: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com [mailto:spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Monday, October 7, 2019 11:47 AM
To: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [EXTERNAL] [spacesettlers] : Lunar space elevator

Link
"On the other hand, you could build a lunar space elevator w ..

Posted by: sraj