Listen to a fantastic novel by Arthur Clarke, “Fountains of Paradise,” about the first steps of a person into space.
In recent years, a great deal has been done. Mountains have been moved—at least asteroids. A second natural satellite has appeared for Earth, slightly above synchronous orbit. Its diameter, at first about a kilometer, quickly decreased as carbon was used up. Everything else—the iron core and manufacturing waste—subsequently forms a counterweight that keeps the tower vertical. Like a stone in a sling, forty thousand kilometers long…