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Material requirements for a space elevator can be reduced by tapering the cable.
https://marspedia.org/Space_elevator
On Earth, a space elevator looks impossible, barring mastery of flawless nanotube technology. On Mars, it is achievable with existing technology, using the strongest of polymers and a high taper, though Phobos and Deimos would have to be moved from their present orbits. Mars is still a technical stretch for tether technology. It would be an enormous and expensive project. But an Earth based tether is firmly in sci-fi territory.
Where this technology may come into its own is on bodies smaller than Mars. Maybe between the lunar surface and the L2 point. A Ceres tether would greatly enhance our ability to mine water on Ceres. The asteroid belt could be served by steel tethers, allowing ores to be removed by vehicles employing low thrust propulsion. No rockers needed. The moons of the outer planets are mostly suitable candidates, though gravitational forces imposed by other satellites may be challenging in some cases. Callisto may be a good candidate for a tether.
Last edited by Calliban (2022-04-20 10:27:32)
"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."
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Here is another post from John Creighton
This one is of interest to anyone familiar with Visual Basic or MATLAB or Excel (or a combination)
http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 638#p57638
The more recent work of GW Johnson used Excel for ALL computations.
(th)
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