3 ms·
Modern space elevator designs (starting from Brad Edwards’s NIAC study in the early 2000s) propose something much closer to a tether than a tower, maybe some hu
by Sharlin 4y ago
Modern space elevator designs (starting from Brad Edwards’s NIAC study in the early 2000s) propose something much closer to a tether than a tower, maybe some hundreds of tons in total mass and shaped like a gossamer-thin ribbon. The worst-case failure mode of such a design would be rather anticlimactic.