LEAG at LPI Houston Nov 7-9 : important paper on the lunar elevator.

>
> you're not talking about something physical from the surface of the earth
> to the surface of the moon are you?

No not at all. It is anchored to the L-1 Earth-Moon langrange point and to the surface of the Moon. It does not extend as far as the Earth.

that is ridiculous, the total weight
> and the issue of the rotation of the earth taking the base away > from

For the baseline design we need 11,000 tons of M9 fiber. This is within feasible manufacturing capability of the supplier.

> facing the moon would destroy it in one day or less. if it survived it would
> simply wrap around and around the earth and be a mess. not to mention
> property and life loss and lawsuits.
>

No that is not how it is set up.

Take a look at the abstract:

if the URL does not work, try this alias:

http://bit.ly/pGH07j

The tether goes from the surface of the Moon to the L-1 lagrange point which is staitonary with respect to the lunar surface. A counterweight cable extends from L-1 about half-way to the Earth.