From: henry@spsystems.net   
      
   In article ,   
   Makhno  wrote:   
   >There's a lot of traffic in this thread about powering the climber. Why   
   >can't it simply have a diesel/gasoline engine with its own oxygen supply?   
      
   Because the mass of fuel and oxygen is prohibitive for a climb that long.   
      
   >Or run electrical cables up the elevator to power an electric motor?   
      
   Transmitting useful amounts of electrical power thousands of kilometers   
   *without* adding significant mass to the cable is extremely difficult.   
   (The current near-term elevator designs have a total cable cross-section   
   of about one square millimeter.  They don't have enough strength margin to   
   tolerate any significant increase in cross-section that doesn't add   
   strength too.)   
      
   >Why make things more complicated than they need to be?   
      
   Because they really do need to be that complicated.   
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