From: schillin@spock.usc.edu   
      
   "Renee Keller"  writes:   
      
   >"Frank Scrooby"  wrote in message   
   >news:gtmdnfx4_9eM0XfdRVn-gQ@is.co.za...   
   >> Hi all   
      
   >I don't think there is any chance of one actually being built.  One major   
   >storm, terror attack, or accident,  and the whole thing comes tumbling down.   
      
      
   Strangely, you are not the first person to think of this.  A lot of good   
   work has been done on fault-tolerant tether design, the dynamics of the   
   system are such that if it is nontheless completely severed most of the   
   thing falls *up*, and the small fraction that falls down is too "fluffy"   
   to hurt anyone.   
      
   Retrieving the part that fell up and tying it back down would be an   
   operational nuisance, of course, but then that's why all the work on   
   fault-tolerant designs where cutting one cable doesn't break the   
   system.   
      
      
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