Space elevator
How to get this into space.
A mother ship is launched and with it two remote operated rockets
This will be placed in geostationary orbit.
Once there the two remote rockets are attached to the initial elevator ribbon
The rockets are then operated so that an lower one fires to slow it down relative to the earths rotation and as well slightly down wards.
This will direct it vertically down wards.
The other rocket at the same time will fire upwards and faster than the earths rotation and still remaining stationary to a spot on earth..
The initial stress on the first part of the thread will always be minor even when at the earth’s surface so it can be fairly thin.
The same as the upper ribbon
At all times the upper rockets position has to be such as the mother ship remains in position balanced by the down ward pull/weight of the down rocket.
All this can be done over a long period as the mother ship gets supplied with more ribbon each shipment getting thicker and stronger.
It may take years for the ribbon to reach the atmosphere but amazing enough it and its rocket will appear to be dropping down ward slowly from the heavens
Once in the atmosphere it will be joggled around just like lampshade on a cord swings in the wind.
The fact that the down part is weaker than the upper part means that in the case of a disaster to the thread it will break and it will leap skyward.
To counteract this an emergency a weight is launched from the mother ship and as it approaches the broken end it will counteract the upward effort from the opposite upper weight.
So no dropping from the sky of a multi ton thread just a case of stopping it from flying upwards.
The middle of the ribbon will be taking the greatest stress and so can be made as wide as needed to counteract the stress so it could be several feet wide and being in space can have many different types of material due to the absence of weather.
The atmospheric part of the thread can have then several 10 mile strands spread over several miles
This will be the anchor part of the elevator and so ensure that in any event of damage to a thread there will be several to take over the strain.
Once the initial space elevator is able to be used then more threads can be sent up to the mother ship and another space elevator built to later get moved to another location.
Copyright Kay Edgecumbe
In the mother ship will be hundreds of super strong string threads on reels and a machine that combines them to one and at the same time add a resin that locks them all together.
This is done today here to make fibreglass rods for fishing and cycle seat posts etc.
the main ribbon would start at say 100 mm thick and progress to a width at the other end that will support the immense weight of the 400 miles each way of the system.
the only problem then is to have a traction system that would accommodate the changing width of the ribbon.
I find it incredible that no where do any concepts show a gradual thickening of the elevator ribbon as the variable stress increases.
