"Diane Wilson" wrote in message
k.net...

much snipped

And Clarke is often an "eternal optimist."

For another view of space elevators, it's worth reading Kim Stanley
Robinson's "Red Mars." Not to give away too much of the plot, a space
elevator is not invulnerable, and the risks and costs of a structural
failure are worth considering.

And while KSR's elevator scene makes great imagery it has absolutely no
attachment in actual reality. Maybe at the time of the writing or in the
seventies when elevator cables needed to mega-giga-ton objects. But this is
the 21st century now and we have ideas about how to build real elevator
cables.

Nowadays elevator cables would be as dangerous as ticker-tape parades.

People, please do some research on the matter before making uninformed
comments in public.

http://www.liftport.com/pages/index....4a6d1c7628e060

http://www.isr.us/SEScienceFAQs.asp#2

http://www.isr.us/SEBEPFAQs.asp#4

Diane

Regards
Frank Scrooby
(who was awestruck by KSR's descriptions at least the first dozen times
round.)