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Space Elevator

(neal.fun)
1773 points kaonwarb | 1 comments | 20 Oct 25 04:42 UTC | HN request time: 0.229s | source
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GMoromisato ◴[20 Oct 25 16:09 UTC] No.45645531[source]▶
I love this page and I donated, but I was (naively) expecting it to get to geosynchronous altitude, which is the actual top of a space elevator.

Of course, that would require a page 420 times longer, and I don't know if a browser would even support it.

replies(3): >>45646616 #>>45647716 #>>45648458 #
gtowey ◴[20 Oct 25 18:55 UTC] No.45647716[source]▶
actually geosync isn't the top. You need to extend beyond that & have a counterweight that balances the weight of everything below the point of geosynchronous orbit. Otherwise it would fall down.
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1. LorenPechtel ◴[21 Oct 25 15:06 UTC] No.45656739[source]▶
Counterweight or just more cable. IIRC it's 170k (miles? kilometers?) if you use no counterweight. And note how fast that outer end is moving, it can throw things pretty hard.