By the necessities of its design a space elevator has to reach geostationary orbit, which would make it tall enough to wrap around the planet twice if it fell. Wouldn’t really matter if you built it on a west coast or not.
Yeah the dearth of destruction left by it falling would be insane. I assume it would have to be built along mainly west coasts to mitigate risks.
SpacetimeMachine@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
deranger@sh.itjust.works 6 hours ago
A geostationary orbit is ~35,000km from the surface of the earth. The circumference of the earth is ~40,000km. It can’t wrap around once, nevermind twice.
bufalo1973@piefed.social 5 minutes ago
And not all would fall. Part of it would be launched outwards by inertia.
SpacetimeMachine@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Ah thanks, I was a dingus and looked up the diameter instead of the circumference. Still doesn’t really matter where you build it. No matter what it’s fucking up a a good portion of the equator if it falls.
XeroxCool@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
It still can’t really fall. It’d be moving incredibly fast sideways. Fast enough to miss the Earth for a while. Geo stationary orbit is the point where orbital speed matches Earth’s rotational speed, so if it’s anchored at the ground, then it’s at orbital speed if at GEO. The higher the orbit, the slower the orbital speed. So using a higher orbit to maintain tension means it’d be traveling beyond escape velocity, held down by the cable. A break would release the mass into the solar system
MotoAsh@piefed.social 4 hours ago
Actually, a good ways passed geostationary orbit if I remember correctly. It needs centrifugal force to keep the cable taut, since it won’t be supporting its weight from the surface.
I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
Dearth means “a striking lack of,” as in “dearth of evidence.” (No evidence)