On 2020-06-11 1:44 PM, David Spain wrote:
On 2020-06-10 7:46 PM, Alain Fournier wrote:

An Earth space elevator is technologically feasible with today's
material. See for instance
http://space.nss.org/wp-content/uplo...IAC-phase1.pdf

OK I've read through Chapter 2. There are a lot of if's here. I would
judge this as written as currently feasible without further study. The
good news is that at the time of writing of this paper in 2000 where
lengths of carbon nanotubes were only in a few centimeters, such results
have been subsumed by newer research ([1], 2013) that have produced a
length of 50 centimeters. So work is progressing, but to say it's
feasible is still a "stretch", pun intended.

There have been more recent papers published on the NSS website he

https://space.nss.org/space-elevator-library/

I'll have to take a look and see what progress has been made since 2000.
The 2000 Edwards paper shows promise and consideration but in and of
itself is not convincing.

Also I take some issue with the need to use a ground laser / climber
solar arrays to power climbers if the cable itself has unique electrical
conductivity. Save some effort here?

Dave

[1] https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/nn401995z