Yes, but if the main station is at the geosynchronous point and pretty much all manned flights get off the elevator here, then you are actually only about 40% of the way up the length of the elevator. So lets say you build it at 30 degrees north latitude (as I understand, that would be doable on earth) then at 40% down, with a concave curve, you're over about 5 degrees north latitude. I'm getting all this from sketching out a model to scale.
So, if your elevator ride ends at the geosynchronous station, then you're orbit is going to have a declination of 5 degrees right?
Does anybody know what the exact theoretical maximum latitude on earth a tapered space elevator could be built at?
I remember somebody asked something about whether CNTs conducted electricity or not. Depending on the chirality (the angle at which the graphene was rolled up) it can be semi-conductive, or really conductive, it can also be superconductive at low temperatures. But I have no idea how it would conduct as an actual ribbon. One good thing is that it will burn up at like 3000K I believe. So if it ever starts to short out the atmosphere, it would burn up before it destroyed the world's weather.
No one will get off at geosynch altitude. The point is to achieve escape velocity, which would require travelling out far enough to where you can just let go and will have the energy leave earth's gravity well immediately.
check this out: http://www.mit.edu/people/gassend/spaceelevator/non-equatorial/
note that the picture in his drawing assumes no counterweight, so the thing just stretches way out there. Hm, one advantage of not doing any counterweight at all is that you get a longer string and don't have to rocket up any mass to serve as a counterweight. If you timed it right, and didn't mind taking the elevator car with you, you could just maglev right off the end of the thing and put your self in a hohmann transfer orbit couldn't you?
The entire elevator in his basic non-equatorial elevator remains north of the equator, and is held there by tension on the base station.