A space elevator needs to be far thicker than one inch at high altitude. Even assuming the absolute minimum diameter to safely lift a 2-ton capsule of about hal

A space elevator needs to be far thicker than one inch at high altitude. Even assuming the absolute minimum diameter to safely lift a 2-ton capsule of about half an inch at the bottom (which means the cable will break when the first piece of space debris encounters it), any current material - the best currently available is Kevlar - needs to be about 800 feet wide at geostationary orbit before tapering down again. This would weigh about 130 million tons per mile. Of course, the cable tapers to the ends, so I averaged over the whole length to reach that figure. Also, energy that goes into ablation doesn't just disappear - it dissipates into the atmosphere as heat, which means it contributes to the overall energy from the impact. And in falling it does not slow down, but rather speeds up - descending from geostationary orbit will accelerate something to about 10e3 m/s, further increasing the energy.