"Makhno" writes:

The current answer to the last question isn't magnets but .. lasers.
Free Electron lasers beam power to the climber, which converts the
energy into mechanical energy (wheels or treads). IIRC, a FEL has
been designed that can do the job.

There's a lot of traffic in this thread about powering the climber. Why
can't it simply have a diesel/gasoline engine with its own oxygen supply?
Or run electrical cables up the elevator to power an electric motor?

Why make things more complicated than they need to be?

Your proposal is not _totally_ implausible. The energy required to climb
a beanstalk is only a small fraction of the energy required to accelerate
a payload into Low Earth Orbit; the fuel and oxygen tankage required
would be large, but not prohibitively so.


-- Gordon D. Pusch

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