Humor me for a minute. I just skimmed this thread to make sure someone hasnt asked this question yet and didnt find anything.
Instead of trying to build a cable strong enough to support a space elevator. Why not build a space elevator without a cable. The following link popped up in my facebook stream
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fNK_lhAorM#t=45
with the following comment.
Now I understand the problem comes down to whether or not one could project a magnetic field in a column from the surface of the earth to some point in space. But power is definitely not going to be a problem. If necessary we could take existing nuclear fission technology and leverage it to build the requisite power station needed to provide the electrical energy needed to power the ground station. Hell we could even pipe via lasers or microwave the energy needed for the in-space anchor. The only problem I can see with this idea is whether or not magnetic fields can be concentrated and forced to basically go straight up in a column. That is a question I do not know the answer to. Though some rudimentary googling (https://www.google.com/search?q=concent ... 2&ie=UTF-8) shows it is not completely ridiculous to attempt to do something like this with magnetic fields.So why can't we bypass the space elevator concept all together and expand on computer controlled magnetic levitation. One solar powered platform in LEO and another floating at sea, and precision lift, levitate and transport containers, all day.
Anyone see why a macro scaled version couldn't work - payloads would be bigger than a rockets.