
Space elevator economics - hhs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator_economics
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simonblack
Strange, they talk about developments of several billion for a new space
vehicle, but blithely waft the development costs for a space elevator away.

A space elevator is a great idea in principle but it would need a tether that
is magically very strong and very light and is thus not a viable proposition
in practice.

The figures supplied in the article for the electrical costs also disregard
the costs of accelerating the payloads to orbital speed, which is required as
well as lifting the payloads to orbital height. (kinetic energy = 1/2 * m *
velocity squared)

