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Comment on If a Space Elevator became a reality, wouldn't the cable act as a kind of wick for all of the unfiltered radiation from outside our atmosphere?

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SpacetimeMachine@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

I think that depends on how big the tether is tbh. It has to be usable as an elevator so it can’t just be a thin cable. And your scenario is assuming that it would be cut down near the base, if it’s damaged anywhere higher up anything below the cut will fall down to earth.

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anomnom@sh.itjust.works ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Yeah that’s kinda what I was envisioning, maybe half the tether zingin off into space when the other half fell into the pacific or desert, but even half is gonna be like 20,000km I guess.

Also wasn’t there a scenario like this in one of the Mars Trilogy books?

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- SpacetimeMachine@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Not certain about the mars trilogy but there is a collapsing space elevator in the foundation series (at least on the show, haven’t read the books yet.)
  
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