One bad landing and poof.
Why, it’s as easy as landing on a barge...
I once watched video of a 180 ft water storage tank falling over - it was impressive, and caused a lot of damage to the surrounding area.
It’s hard to imagine the catastrophic effects of a +/- 64,000 ft tall tower toppling over.
I think they’ve been hitting the thoth.
“As GCR (Global Construction Review) News described it, this is a freestanding space tower concept, held rigid by pressurized gas.”
That’s a pretty novel idea for a space elevator. The main problem for space elevators is that their sheer weight makes it impossible for them to maintain structural integrity. However, if you made the tower like a dirigible, filled with gas that is lighter than air, then you could use buoyancy to offset the weight, at least enough to make the structure viable.
However, it would require a whole heck of a lot of lighter-than-air gas. I just calculated, for a 20km tower with a 10,000 sq m footprint, you would need 16,400,000 kg of hydrogen to fill it (helium would be safer, but would weigh and cost a lot more). Though, my calculation didn’t account for variance in density of the gas as you get higher in the atmosphere, and you could use less gas to just achieve neutral buoyancy, while filling the rest of the structure with air to keep it rigid.
Using a perfect circle 7,925 miles in diameter, a 12 mile long line rising normal to the surface of the circle would be visible from over 300 miles away.
Obviously the earth’s surface has mountains, valleys and other terrain imperfections which would affect that distance in the real world, but such a “space elevator” would be visible from a VERY long way away on a clear day.
And that is definitely going to f-— up SOME selfish liberals’ “view shed”.
Somewhere, a Moslem terrorist has printed out this picture and drawn a bullseye on it.
Only 12 miles? That’s a good start I guess. Probably want to get up closer to 50 to really be useful.
This can work. How about a restaurant at the top? Fantastic view. Charge elevator fees and it will be paid off in a few years.
What a place to take a first date! or for a honeymoon. Forget the space ships. This will be a money maker.
Stairway to heaven comes to mind, but this is an elevator.