Posted on 02/22/2014 8:13:46 PM PST by ckilmer
I remember a study from many years ago that mentioned that one of the ‘side effects’ or products if you will from a space elevator would be enormous amounts of electricity. In fact that was mentioned as a hazard as a possible ‘burn through’ from electric arcing on the cables.
Harness that electricity to power the elevator and sell the excess for a profit.
For those interested the electricity was a produced by the cable necessarily passing through various layers of not only the atmosphere but through the ‘electrosphere’, Van Allen belts etc. There is a lot of actual and potential energy there.
Gravity doesn't fall off that fast. 150 miles up objects would weigh 93% of their sea level weight and would fall to Earth like a rock unless they were sped up to 17,000 mph after their exit from the elevator. That's going to take a rocket engine and fuel. An elevator ride doesn't lower the costs much of putting a mass into orbit.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.