A space elevator possible with today’s technology (dangled off the moon) (2019)

technologyreview.com

3 pointstempestn3 comments

If getting to LEO is "halfway to anywhere in the solar system" [1], then what is getting from GEO to a Lagrange point or to the moon? Let's say that you want to go to the moon, then does this spaceline save 25% of your fuel? or what?

[1] https://space.nss.org/book-review-halfway-to-anywhere/

FTA:

> “By extending a line, anchored on the moon, to deep within Earth’s gravity well, we can construct a stable, traversable cable allowing free movement from the vicinity of Earth to the Moon’s surface,” say Penoyre and Sandford.

> The savings would be huge. “It would reduce the fuel needed to reach the surface of the moon to a third of the current value,” they say.

It doesn’t save much on the Earth to Moon fuel cost, but it would dramatically alter the economics of putting stuff in LEO from the moon. So in theory if you had a well developed lunar industry it would make more sense.

The same goes for Mars.

https://deltavmap.github.io/

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