I have two naive questions about a space elevator to which I haven't
seen clear answers. Both have to do with the bottom 0.5% of the cable:
the part in the atmosphere. (I hope this isn't too off-topic for a
_policy_ newsgroup...)

1) How is the cable expected to handle tropical storms? Is it
believed that such a structure could ride out hurricane force winds
without turning into Galloping Gertie? Or is it assumed that, since the
elevator will touch down either on the equator or very near to it,
hurricanes won't be an issue, since they normally don't form closer than
about +/- 300 miles from the equator (due to lack of Coriolis effect)?

The 300 mile "restricted zone" for hurricanes sounded good until I
realized massive storms can migrate to the equator, even if they can't
form there, and even if they're doomed by crossing the equator they still
might be able to cause significant havoc to a ground station on the
equator.

One issue with riding out strong winds, of course, is that the
tension vector is almost straight up, even if the the cable has been
pulled far off to one side: at the top of the atmosphere we're already
more than 99 percent of the way down. This would seem to suggest that
the cable will not be very "stiff" in response to horizontal
wind loading.

2) What's the current story on the atmospheric E and B fields? I seem
to recall a shuttle experiment with a tethered satellite failed due to
high electrical tension along the cable. Now, as I understand it,
that was most likely due to the earth's B field (which the shuttle
cuts across at high speed), which would presumably not be an issue
for something stationary WRT the Earth's surface. But the atmosphere
also has a significant (vertical) E field. I've seen speculation
(elsewhere) that this would be a problem for an elevator; I've speculated
privately that this could be a great resource for an elevator to tap (if
the voltage isn't too impossibly high). Does anyone here know the correct
story on this? Is it even an issue?


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