From NEO to GEO --- an SPS scenario

>
> What about a tether that straddles the L1 point, with one end in the
> Lunar gravity well, the other in Earth's. Weights on each end could be
> raised and lowered to help stabilize it in one dimension. Would that be
> sufficient or just make it worse?
>

It might help but it is not sufficient.

The L-1 point is a saddle point, some complex manouvering is required to
maintain station.

> All the questions on this list about orbital mechanics makes me wonder
> if there is any half-way decent open-source software out there to do
> basic stuff like this with a reasonable degree of accuracy. I doubt
> there's any such software that would include long tethers, but something
> would be nice.
>

Not to my knowledge. Some commercial products exist and they are very
expensive.

Haved you looked at www.tethers.com ?