Building a launch loop

A launch loop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Launch_loop is a proposed way to put lots of things into space at lower unit cost than rockets (only need to pay the energy cost in electricity for each payload) without needing very strong materials (the exoatmospheric-height structure is supported by electrodynamics, not the strength of materials).

Postulating a setting where the technology and economics are up to designing such a thing and manufacturing all the components, how would you go about building it? In a half-built loop, the rotor is not circulating, so no support. The obvious answer is static scaffolding, but if you could build static structures that high, you could just let that suffice for the final structure and avoid all the trouble and expense of the circulating rotor.

posted about 5 years ago

rwallace‭

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