> A space elevator on the moon is much more feasible: less gravity, slow rotation
The slow rotation is a minus, it means you've got to string the tether up to L1 instead of "just" up to geo/luna-stationary orbit. A lunar space elevator needs to be at least 56000 km long, more than 20000 km longer than the one to earth.
> But it's also much less useful.
Yeah, especially because all the things that make lunar space elevators a little more attainable also make lunar mass drivers a lot more attainable. Why ride in an elevator for a week if you also can just be fired from a cannon?
A space elevator is kind of like a vertical mass driver, so just build one of those along the surface of the moon with modest acceleration, survivable by passengers.
Rotating cables ("rotavators") on the moon seem much more practical than full space elevators.
The slow rotation is a minus, it means you've got to string the tether up to L1 instead of "just" up to geo/luna-stationary orbit. A lunar space elevator needs to be at least 56000 km long, more than 20000 km longer than the one to earth.
> But it's also much less useful.
Yeah, especially because all the things that make lunar space elevators a little more attainable also make lunar mass drivers a lot more attainable. Why ride in an elevator for a week if you also can just be fired from a cannon?