3 ms·

Space elevators.

• avmich 4y ago
  Space elevators aren't compatible with existing and planned satellites. Edit: let me explain. The space elevator necessarily goes to the height of the geostationary orbit, ~36000 km above Earth surface, and placed on equator on the Earth. It will intersect all orbital planes of satellites, and vast majority of satellites flies below GEO. Satellites orbits are not quite predictable in practice, due to fluctuations of forces acting on satellites, so without active avoidance system - which almost all existing satellites lack and new satellites aren't planning to have - eventually satellite will collide with the elevator, at speed which seems to be rather catastrophic to both satellite and the elevator. There were many attempts to solve this problem, but I haven't seen an adequate one so far, and I rather doubt the humanity will replace the satellites with the space elevator (which won't be able to launch long-term satellites for the same reason). So, space elevator won't actually work as intended.