Calling the Space Elevator

CornfedPig writes "SPACE.com has an article that suggests building an elevator to a 100,000 km-high penthouse could be possible within the next few years at a cost of about $5B US. Widespread availability of low-cost carbon nanotubes appears to be the gating factor. Existence of such an elevator could drop the cost of lifting things (satellites, people, CowboyNeal) into orbit to a couple of hundred dollars a pound. Anyone remember Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise?" Space elevator stories come along every few months; we never seem to be getting any closer to actually doing it. I imagine it will happen at some point in my lifetime, but...

Comments

Stabiliy ?

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Are there any astro uber geeks that can comment on the stability of this system from the standpoint of

1. small changes of mass from the upper end of the elevator (like from space objects hitting and sticking, etc.)
2. small oscillation modes (rubber band like) in the connecting fiber

Otherwise, I'd be Real Nervous® about having the base station of the elevator anywhere near MyBackYard.