[Opinionated Blowhard]

This sounds like a great idea. Until it comes crashing down and kills a bunch of people. Or is blown up in a terrorist attack.

[Sirius Lee]

Foundation.

[mikey_hates_everything]

Looks as if someone has seen “Foundation” and I agree. No way would I put myself on something like that.

[citizen]

Or is blown up in a terrorist attack.

---

That's what happened to the Mars elevator cable depicted in Kim Stanley Robinson's Red-Green-Blue Mars trilogy.

A quasi-terrorist group of Mars "purists," the Red faction, wanted to keep Mars in an undisturbed, pristine condition and sabotaged settlement and terraforming endeavors. They blew off the orbiting asteroid counterweight at the space end of the cable and it came crashing down with great force, wrapping one and a half times around Mars.