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Where was the space elevator on Earth

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fafromnice fafromnice's picture
Where was the space elevator on Earth
I was wondering where were the Space Elevator on Earth and How many they were they talk in the books about the Kilimanjaro one but I don't remember if they mention others it seems that they cannot be put anywhere (or can they ?) like in northern Canada and if they are only on the equator line would they be link together by a giant ring like station ? How many were destroyed in the fall or are not working anymore ? And how could you use a not working space elevator ?

What do you mean a butterfly cause this ? How a butterfly can cause an enviromental system overload on the other side of a 10 000 egos habitat ?

ORCACommander ORCACommander's picture
Earth had 2 space elevators.
Earth had 2 space elevators. Kilamanjaro is the intact one that could be reactivated. The other one was destroyed and you can see the impact scare from the tether along the equator. As I guess the physics you could probly erect one between the tropic of cancer and tropic of capricorn. You can not link the two counterweight stations as the conflicting shear forces would drive them earthward. Kilomanjaro was probly sighted because well kilomanjaro is a pretty big fucking mountain saving a lot of material costs on the length of the tether at the very least, thus it probably that most space elevators get sited along mountain peaks. Depends on the nature of the brokenness. the one that is not kilomanjaro is completely destroyed. However Kilo could of sustained damage of some kind but as written it only needs power and a go code. the easiest way to bypass a broken elevator is a manual climb alogn the tether but that is long and treacherous once you hit gravity
Redroverone Redroverone's picture
Best guess given the parameters
would be Ecuador. Although earthquakes are a problem.
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MDFification MDFification's picture
The second space elevator was
The second space elevator was, if I remember correctly, described as being located in the pacific ocean and being mobile. A mobile space elevator. Now I've seen everything.
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Chernoborg Chernoborg's picture
Despite much rereading...
Huh, I honestly thought there was more space elevators than that too. For some reason five was the number I'd settled on and at least on of those was in Jakarta. Possibly another at the ESA spaceport in Guiana. I certainly could be conflating space elevators with other conventional spaceports and possibly even from other works of fiction! I was so sure of this I remember wondering why Mars only has one elevator! Another downside is that it kind of kills an idea for a habitat I was toying with -the components of an elevator flung into space during The Fall called the Loose End! This site has some simulations of what would happen to an elevator when it breaks: http://gassend.net/spaceelevator/breaks/
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ORCACommander ORCACommander's picture
remember the one rule above
remember the one rule above all others have fun and modify this to suit your campaign's needs
UnitOmega UnitOmega's picture
All the core book says is
All the core book says is that there were multiple elevators, and Sunward mentions the "mobile pacific" beanstalk, and then Kilimanjaro. However, based on the phrasing in core, I'd wager "multiple" means more than just two, so feel free to put them wherever. Indonesian and Ecuadorian ones seem feasible, maybe.
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Chernoborg Chernoborg's picture
I just recently found the
I just recently found the lines in the core about the elevators ( pgs. 90 & 91 for anyone looking) so at least I know I wasn't imagining that. Whew! There's also a little bit in Rimward about Liberty City stopping its elevator project after seeing what happened to the elevators on earth.
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jKaiser jKaiser's picture
One other bit, if you're
One other bit, if you're planning on using the wreckage in some way in your story, is the kind of damage they'd do depends on how they'd destroyed. Or more the point, where the cable's cut. Short version, if it's cut on the surface or relatively low atmosphere, it's going to fly out into space, and damn fast at that. You're pretty much not going to have the entire thing fall since the vast majority of the mass is pretty far out there, specifically the center of mass is going to be in geostationary orbit. Someone check my thinking, but the only parts that would fall and wrap at all would be the parts in atmosphere, and even then, atmospheric drag would have to be a bigger force enacting on them than the relative speed of a suborbital velocity (the mass also has to stand up on its own gravity at that point, like an oversized skyscraper, but the particulars will depend on how you envision the anchor point, how many cables make up the stem, the complex around it, etc.) It's basically a weighted string on a spinning basketball if that helps the visualization. The anchor station's are holding it down, not up. And the takeaway that I see is that you'd have n>1 freeflying cables and attached stations whipping around Sol-Earth Orbit somewhere, most of them in excess of 40,000 kilometers long. (most designs I've read go well past GEO for balancing) Probably accompanied by a by-now very scatted debris field courtesy of all ships and stations that were in the way during the Fall. Actually a pretty awesome setting, come to think of it.
Chernoborg Chernoborg's picture
The general idea for Loose
The general idea for Loose End was that the anchor was blown before it was overrun and the rest of the elevator was flung away. The survivors onboard then spun the geostationary starport and counterweight for gravity - probably after trimming what's left of the anchor cable. I haven't gotten into factional affiliations beyond a general sense that they have ties to the reclaimers. Judging by the simulation on the site I linked to earlier, it didn't seem too rough for the tether to handle. Whether the people inside could survive is a different question!
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