politics
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
space elevator would be a 20-year focused construction project, likely in Indonesia/Philippines and would need a fuckton of money
the lift vehicle itself isn't that fancy, you really are just tethering to a 'chain' and climbing up, it's not meant to be fast
theoretical weight limits using carbon materials we have today are reasonable enough to be worth doing
and once it's done once, it's trivial to upgrade
Equator
you either want it at the equator or at the pole
can't get huge shipping vessels to the poles
we'd just buy an island from Indoenisa/Philpipines to do it
and it would be international anyway
even if America owns it
GALAPAGOS ISLANDS
it's perfect
now, despite how important the equator is, I'm not sure what the degree offset cost is in terms of station-keeping
being a few degrees off might not matter that much if we can essentially refuel the space segment at will
but anything in the mainland US is a non-starter
we're talking long-long term
but I think our current knowledge of how we'd teraform a planet is better suited for something like Mars than Venus
the duration which it could hold an atmosphere is long enough for us though
good choice
Leg's correct that the core of Venus is less magnetic than Earth's so it'll gradually lose its atmosphere
but I don't think it's at a speed that will make it impossible for us to outpace
