RE: Robinson, he actually wrote a chapter in Liftports Book: Opening Space To Everyone http://is.gd/gHJEPt explaining the reasons that the Mars series is far different from a Lunar elevator!
RE: Using Geo vs. 60,000 miles:1. The Center of Mass is in the same point with both.2. There are trade offs in having a larger mass (asteroid) at the end of a shorter line vs. a much longer line with a man-made object at the end…
Check out ISEC.org Doing a Lunar elevator before an Earth elevator would not only be easier but it is doable now, whereas the Earth Elevator is many years off…
RE: Damage, the ribbon will be so light that it will “float” downward and is nothing like the fictionalized massive destruction described in the Mars series…
BTW: The proposed location of the Liftport is about 2,500 West of Ecuador on the equator in the middle of “nowhere”…
3 Great reasons:1. A floating sea based Liftport is politically stable.2. Lightning strikes land 20X more than the Ocean.3. It makes moving the Liftport “Base” easy which is Req. to pulse the ribbon (move it due to space debris),
Expect the speed of climb to increase as the elevator rises and “weight” has less effect… Imagine a late afternoon “Launch” so you could initially watch the scenery as you climbed into the sky, then a very long amazing sunset before the “curve” of the Earth came into view…
Please see my reply below…
I’m sorry we can’t put comments where they belong!