Bye bye Space Elevator

On 6/6/06, panamabob@...
wrote:
(...)
> your floating up there, what else do you want? To move about doesnt require getting to 17,000 mph...unless you want to circle the globe real fast...
>
> from that platform you then go away as you wish... small amount of thrust continuously, no big bang needed.
(...)

It seems that you are assuming that gravity will be quite low at an
altitude of 30Km. I am afraid to say that it will be basically the
same gravity at sea level, and so you will still need high thrust
rockets to counteract gravity.