Interesting concept, but I wonder about the economics. A telephone pole has a volume of about 3 million cubic centimetres. Tungsten's density is ~20 g/cm^3, s

Interesting concept, but I wonder about the economics. A telephone pole has a volume of about 3 million cubic centimetres. Tungsten's density is ~20 g/cm^3, so we're talking about 60 000 kilograms of tungsten. At around $40/kg, that's ~2.5 million dollars per rod just in raw materials. But that's ignoring the cost of bringing a 60 metric ton rod into orbit, of course. You'd need a Falcon Heavy launch per rod, ignoring the problematic dimensions (let's assume you can cold weld a few pieces together in space). That's at least another $60 million per rod for the launch costs.