3 ms·

What are the failure modes of this technology? It appeals mosly to SF fans, and every SF fan who has read the Ringworld novels will think of cities crumbled to

• wlievens 18y ago
  The upper half would fly off, and the lower part would burn up in the atmosphere. I think.
  • jsmcgd 18y ago
    I don't think it would burn up because its relative motion to the atmosphere will be zero apart from a relatively small vertical acceleration due to gravity. It would most likely come straight down on top of its base.
• demallien 18y ago
  One of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars books deals with precisely this, though on Mars, not Earth... It's the second book I think. Important take home point: Failure of a space elevator is just all-round nasty on a global scale... The speeds that the cable attains as it falls, and its likely weight supposedly make for a very big impact along a very long point of impact (or should that be line of impact?)