Value chain · CLM-1369
In plain terms
The design is a ribbon about 100,000 km long, fixed to a sea platform near the equator, that stays over the same spot as the Earth turns. Without avoidance, something in orbit would hit it about once a year.
The claim as recorded
A 2003 space-elevator design study describes a ribbon anchored at sea in the eastern equatorial Pacific and reaching 62,000 miles (about 100,000 km) up, well beyond geosynchronous orbit at 35,800 km, held taut and "stationary over a single position on Earth". Mechanical climbers would carry 13 ton payloads. The study calculates that, without a way to prevent it, a large satellite or piece of debris would strike the elevator at least once a year.
Evidence behind this: T3, a final report to the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts; it permits "the study's design is Y", not that any part was built.
Scope and limits
62,000 miles x 1.609344 = 99,779 km (my arithmetic). The source gives this as the ribbon length and does not place a counterweight at that height on the pages read; PDF p.14 says its spreadsheets compute counterweight mass. No climber speed is stated anywhere in the text layer: searches for km/h, mph and speed found none for climbers. The source does not say the cable sweeps the equatorial plane once a day. That follows from "stationary over a single position on Earth", because the cable turns once per sidereal day in an inertial frame (my inference). The once-a-year strike figure is the closest the source comes to the sweep. PDF p.43 is a one-page overview at the end of the report.
What it assumes
That the ribbon end altitude is close to its length, the ribbon being near radial; the source gives a length, not an end altitude.
Where it comes from
PDF p.43: the ribbon has one end at the surface and the other "beyond geosynchronous orbit (35,800 km altitude)"; the cable is kept under tension and "stationary over a single position on Earth"; "the other 62,000 miles up in space"; "The sheer length, 62,000 miles, is considerable"; "mechanical climbers capable of delivering 13 ton payloads"; anchor platform in the eastern equatorial Pacific (paraphrase). PDF p.22: a large orbital object "would strike the space elevator at least once a year if nothing were done to prevent it".
Basis: ribbon length (miles, km); altitude (km); payload (tons)
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1369
CLM-1369, Energy Aperture, as of 2003-03.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.