"Jeff Findley" wrote in message
...

In article ,
says...

On Wednesday, June 20, 2018 at 8:21:31 PM UTC-4, Alain Fournier wrote:

The cable is tapered, so it is stronger at geostationary altitude.
The most likely reason for the cable to break is if it is hit by
something. The cable being very big at geostationary altitude (and most
likely multi-stranded) it is probably more likely to survive a hit
there.

Sooner or later an aircraft will blunder into the area and hit the
cable and break it. Is there any way to prevent that?

Also orbital debris. ISS maneuvers to avoid large bits. Not sure how
you could do that with the space elevator.

Jeff

The answer I've seen is you intentionally cause a "wave" to occur in the
cable to that the peak of the wave moves the cable out of the way of the
debris.
I find that... questionable....

I love the idea of a space elevator, but I sure do question the details.



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