Space Elevators

> From: Brad Walsh
>One thing I've gleaned, though--the engineering
> challenges are so much less in a luner space
> elevator, even a Mars one, that these will
> probably be the proving grounds for the concepts.

A lunar elevator would consist of a ribbon that points towards Earth, and is
long enough that its tip passes through the L1 point and is affected by
Earth's gravity, and hence self stabilising. I think this 'stationary'
construction might be too different to a 'moving' earth-style space elevator
to validate it. Current 'low cost' plans for an earth SE mean 90% of its
mass is 'launched' by cheep climbing robots that thicken the cable and act
as a counterweight. All that carbon would have to be launched from Earth or
harvested from an asteroid for a unar SE - both of which would probably
invalidate any savings in cost or simplicity.

And mars has very little that would justify a space elevator. Even
settlement wouldn't do it, since settlers would want to spread out, and a
elevator that just sits in one spot (or at best slowly orbits the equator)
wouldn't be much use to them.

John