Environmental Legacy of a Space Elevator

If there is no shortcut (such as a ground launch) to putting the apparatus in space, hundreds, if not thousands, of rocket launches may be required to construct the orbiting test apparatus. That is to put into space not only cannon in multiple sections but the counter-thrust engines in many pieces and the astronauts to build it. Building the required orbiting cannon may be easier than building the adjoining chemical counter-thrust engines. Then huge quantities of propellant chemicals to refuel the counter-thrust engines for every test required. The cannon (or hollow tube and pusher plate) would have been carefully inspected each time for cracks and hairline fractures.

The great thing is that once in orbit the first working orbiting sky hook, it can lift more than its own body weight with ease. Hence the next payloads are just further sky hooks in case there is a problem with the first. The new sky hooks would also be of much greater quality and reliability, having now the advantage of being milled on earth and in one piece. 

However if the test bed apparatus had failed in the end to achieve physical containment of a detonation (within the tube and pusher-plate alignment), the counter-thrust engines could be easily decoupled. Then they could be used after some refuelling to provide propulsion for a conventional high speed Mars run. There is therefore some joint benefit between pursuing a manned Mars project and building ACCTOPE.

Environmental Legacy of a Space Elevator continued

Successful development would relax global political fears on the dangers of global warming Switching to further pull payloads through ACCTOPE would phase out as soon as possible all traditional push payload rocketry. To give the climate a break for once!

Before success is achieved, global consumption can be limited by the evolution of less consumerist societies. The obvious way to pursue that is to advocate the value of pursing the goals of post-retro digital industrialisation. That is Keynesian style economic policies that manage the tasks of digitising our entire human history at a much higher rate than the free market would drive us to do so. Digitisation jobs would be less well paid (so consumption less) but the massive repository of non-digital content could provide fair and equal employment opportunities for many millions of people in the post industrial nations. Future generations would use such a complete digital store of human history in ways currently unimaginable.