> If you don't do this, then it'll "tug" on the cable counter its rotation. There is tension on the cable, the counterweight at the top will pull the cable str

> If you don't do this, then it'll "tug" on the cable counter its rotation. There is tension on the cable, the counterweight at the top will pull the cable straight. > I don't think anybody would engage in a project that cost trillions of dollars to get built, and then can only send 12 missions per year into orbit. That's a good point, single space elevators don't scale very well if there's bidirectional traffic on a single cable. Jettisoning the climber at the top is certainly feasible in the beginning, but once we're really using space (which the elevator could finally enable us to do) we're going to need the elevator as a safe return vehicle. In the long run, we're going to need drastically more space elevators, and it might make sense to have a dual ribbon for each elevator, allowing full duplex. Right now it's about getting someone to build the first one, though. Baby steps.