Quote from: Rusty_Barton on 09/22/2008 10:39 pmJapan would have to gain approval from some country on the equator to build the elevator. The equator passes across the land of 11 countries: Ecuador (including Galapagos Islands), Colombia, Brazil, Sao Tome & Principe, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Maldives, Indonesia. Which one is politically stable enough to trust with a $ 9-billion dollar space elevator?Most of those countries are stable enough when you have several cables. Besides a good portion of the equator runs through open water with no territorial claim.
Japan would have to gain approval from some country on the equator to build the elevator. The equator passes across the land of 11 countries: Ecuador (including Galapagos Islands), Colombia, Brazil, Sao Tome & Principe, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Maldives, Indonesia. Which one is politically stable enough to trust with a $ 9-billion dollar space elevator?
Japan would have to gain approval from some country on the equator to build the elevator. The equator passes across the land of 11 countries: Ecuador (including Galapagos Islands), Colombia, Brazil, Sao Tome & Principe, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Maldives, Indonesia. Which one is politically stable enough to trust with a $ 9-billion dollar space elevator? What is the worst case scenario for 36,000km (or more) of "super light" lift cable falling back to earth due to some malfunction or miscalculation? Would if fall in one place or wrap around the earth? What type of damage would it do?
I'd have it located in Brazil because it's politically relatively stable and has a large industrial base.Locating it inland safe from typhoons and tropical storms would be a smart move.BTW a falling space elevator wouldn't do as much damage as one would think.Much of it would move into a higher orbit while what does comes down would mostly burn up since it is just carbon nano tubes.It might even be possible to repair the elevator after the incident.The biggest danger to such an elevator would be MMOD damage from stuff in LEO.
Quote from: khallow on 09/23/2008 01:18 pmQuote from: Rusty_Barton on 09/22/2008 10:39 pmJapan would have to gain approval from some country on the equator to build the elevator. The equator passes across the land of 11 countries: Ecuador (including Galapagos Islands), Colombia, Brazil, Sao Tome & Principe, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Maldives, Indonesia. Which one is politically stable enough to trust with a $ 9-billion dollar space elevator?Most of those countries are stable enough when you have several cables. Besides a good portion of the equator runs through open water with no territorial claim.Without reflecting on cost and technical feasibility, I found myself wondering which equatorial seamount in international waters would be best, and whether or not a corporate entity could lay claim to it. Secondarily, does the seaside end of the cable need to be anchored to seabed, or would a big floating platform a la Sea Launch (but bigger, since I assume you'd probably want a nuclear reactor aboard for the powerplant) do the job?
On the other hand, a hypersonic rotovator could be built using today's materials (Spectra 2000?). This could orbit at 7km/s, pick up at 4km/s, and release at 10km/s, which is about right for GTO and LTO.