"Geostationary orbit is roughly 22,236 miles above the Earth's surface. ... Effectively, a cable would descend from a satellite structure anchored in geostationary orbit that would act as a "counterweight" down to Earth."
If one were to fail—as do all human-made structures—it would wrap itself around the circumference of the Earth at the equator. That's 24,902 miles. The orbital momentum of the fall would throw debris considerably further. Don't expect one soon, if ever. (This would make a great story prompt, though. I once wrote a short story about one.)
An illustrated tour of the skies in an #space#elevator
A long scroll through the skies gives you a sense of elevation up until you leave #Earth. See how high birds fly, where the wild yak resides, and who was the first person to break the sound barrier in a free fall. https://neal.fun/space-elevator/ #spaceelevator
@eldritch48 Ever since I learned about the concept of #SpaceElevator rockets seem like such a silly (and environmentally bad) thing to do.
We just need to research a material (or rather research into making nano tubes longer) and the possibilities are endless, solar power from space, space-lift to moon and Mars, huuuuuuge space telescopes and space stations, asteroid mining, it would literally be the next step for humanity. It would be so cool!
@spaceflight $100/kg might be a target cost, but would it be the selling price to customers ?? There'd probably be a large mark-up for many years to cover engineering & other development costs, and perhaps some future 'carbon tax' on the fuel ... and there'd still be a capacity limit.
BTW, $100/kg happens to be the projected cargo cost for a #SpaceElevator launch ... with fewer capacity limitations and zero emissions (once assembled, perhaps by a few Starship launches !)