[billybudd]

I'm skeptical on how these nanotubes, even at 100 times stronger than steel, will be able to compensate for the extreme forces at work here.

[RightWhale]

compensate for the extreme forces

That is why, while I know the thing can be built, it won't be a yard wide and paper thin all the way up. At the point of maximum stress, which is, if I recall, quite a ways up toward geosynch altitude, it will have to be really thick, like a mile in diameter and taper towards each end.