SRC-733

The Space Elevator, NIAC Phase II Final Report

Commissioned by NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts. Who paid for a study is recorded because it bears on how its conclusions should be read, not because it makes them wrong.

Published claims resting on this source

• CLM-1369 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.
• CLM-1370 The cable needs a material about 30 times stronger than steel. In 2003 only carbon nanotubes looked able to get there, and real fibres were nowhere near yet.

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