Linda Phillips

Space Elevator Earth Ports Linda Phillips

The concept of a Space Elevator started over a century ago but started to move from science fiction to reality in the 1990s with the promising advent of a super strong material, carbon nanotubes, that theoretically had the strength to build a ribbon into space. NASA started investigating the concept in the 1990s. When it happens, it will replace rockets as the easier and cheaper way to leave Earth, opening up space travel the way airplanes opened up world travel. In book four, we return to Earth to review the possible locations for the Elevator Space Port, and cover the eight ideal locations near the Equator, in the oceans. As soon as the first elevator is completed, we will want to build a second elevator, a third ... and so on, We consider the location issues. Locations have implications for managing ribbon movement, risk and safety measures, and avoiding collisions with space debris, asteroids and these are covered.