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Gmn8piTmn t1_ixyqcit wrote

Reply to comment by PM_Me_The_Surprise in Space Elevators Are Less Sci-Fi Than You Think by Sorin61

200 miles? No. At 200 miles you need to orbit at 25mach. Try 35.000 km

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PM_Me_The_Surprise t1_ixzem2q wrote

I was thinking this was more to do with getting things to the ISS or other low orbit needs, but I get what you're saying. That's a long fucking cable.

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Gmn8piTmn t1_ixzh2dx wrote

It is but you can’t anchor one end of the cable at 250 miles because it will have to be moving compared to the ground at 28.000km/h (17.000+ mph) which means that you’d have a cable whipping around the earth at that speed. I mean the destruction would be monumental haha.

What you do is you anchor the cable at a geosynchronous orbit so it will be still compared to the earths surface at 35.000km away.

That’s a damn long cable lol.

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