Very interesting idea! I never thought about a space elevator on a moon, like say Titan.
The length of the tether depends on the planet or moon’s gravity and how fast it rotates. Lower gravity and faster rotation make for a shorter tether. A Mars one would only have to be about 3/4 as long as on Earth. Unfortunately, a space elevator tether on any planet or major moon in the solar system would be tens of thousands of kilometers long - all on the same scale of difficulty in terms of materials science.
One of my assumptions is getting off earth will always be the most expensive part of any space activity. Implications are
getting bulk materials from other than earth will be critical to make it sustainable
some degree of local manufacturing and farming is vital
mining in space will never be worth returning to earth
Therefore even relatively small permanent presences in space might quickly turn to “trade”. If we can refine mineral X on the moon it may be cheaper to ship to a Europa base than for Europa to find it locally, and both be far cheaper than bringing it up from earth
Very interesting idea! I never thought about a space elevator on a moon, like say Titan.
The length of the tether depends on the planet or moon’s gravity and how fast it rotates. Lower gravity and faster rotation make for a shorter tether. A Mars one would only have to be about 3/4 as long as on Earth. Unfortunately, a space elevator tether on any planet or major moon in the solar system would be tens of thousands of kilometers long - all on the same scale of difficulty in terms of materials science.
One of my assumptions is getting off earth will always be the most expensive part of any space activity. Implications are
Therefore even relatively small permanent presences in space might quickly turn to “trade”. If we can refine mineral X on the moon it may be cheaper to ship to a Europa base than for Europa to find it locally, and both be far cheaper than bringing it up from earth