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Re: starship-design: Space Elevators Maybe Closer To Reality Than Imagined



In a message dated 8/1/03 6:34:56 PM, lparker@cacaphony.net writes:

>> Hard to say.  Current tech with a large market could drop costs to $s per 
>> pound of cargo to orbit.  A teather might be cheaper -- or might be more
>> expensive.  A teathers overhead and maint expenses could well be far
>>more.
>> 
>> Teather advocates love to quote the stats that "energy costs" to orbit
>>would 
>> only be pennies per pound of cargo.  But the energy costs of conventional
>> launchers is little more -- and a trivial fraction of actual costs.
>
>Actually, dumping energy seemed to be a bigger deal than energy cost to
>orbit. Perhaps they could anchor it somewhere like the middle of Africa
>which REALLY could use cheap energy and sell the energy surplust to
>defray operating costs.
>
>Better, of course, would be to do the same thing somewhere in the
>developed world where they could get more money for the same energy.
>
>Lee

The power would be worth more.

Wonder how they generate it without degrading their orbit?