/sci/ - Science & Math

>>10996338
I doubt even active could hold up such an enormous and lopsided structure. I get why artists have to take liberties though, if it were portrayed realistically you wouldn't see much more or less than a very thin silver/white thread which at the distance of the observer wouldn't be very interesting. By far the largest part of any realistic space elevator will be it's counterweight anchor which pulls the whole thing taut, estimated between 1-5 megatons in weight at a minimum for an Earth elevator, depending on the type of tether material you're using. At least all you'd need is a big stack of moon-concrete or some other easily sourced material, if you really do use moon concrete you'd need a cube of it about about 2080m^3 in volume to anchor an elevator on the heavier side, something that used say Twaron or T1100G Carbon Fiber as opposed to the ideal but unrealized nanotubes or graphene. So what you'd see is a long reflective or white fiber with a huge grey brick at one end and a little clump of stations (little compared to the overall structure) much closer to the brick than to the planet.

>>7146013
>>7146020
Most designs for a space elevator include a counterweight that would prevent the elevator from collapsing under its own weight.
Many designs are also built on an ocean platform that would be able to move itself out of the way of any debris floating in orbit.
I suppose it could also move out of the way of satellites, however there aren't enough in orbit to be a very big issue.

>You will never live to see a working Space Elevator

Space Elevators.
Good idea? Bad idea?
Likely to be built eventually or entirely unfeasible?
Would you take one and stay at the attached zero-G resort?

How many of you think that a Space Elevator is a likelihood sometime in the next 50 years?

>>1392519
Nobodies thought of connecting it to the moon though... why not use that as the counter weight

All about space elevators.

I've been thinking about these a lot recently, and I've started to wonder if it would be easier/more economical/technologically viable to produce or ship the material into space, to a station already at GSO and then simply lower the tether down to the earth, probably with small engines attached to the end of it for adjustment.

How much force would be exerted on an object tethered to earth if the object was properly counterweighted and at the appropriate height so as to not 'fall behind' in rotation?