A self-destruct may help, but that's more stuff to hang on the cable (making it heavier again) and brings up the possibility of polluting near-Earth space with thousands of bits of cable if you blow the whole thing.
Not to mention, if you put an explosive charge even only every 500m along the stuff below the mid point (since anything higher won't hit the ground or pollute low orbits) that's still about 70,000 charges. I wouldn't want to be the one in charge of coming up with a control mechanism that could guarantee no accidental detonations.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2003-09-14 11:43 (UTC)Not to mention, if you put an explosive charge even only every 500m along the stuff below the mid point (since anything higher won't hit the ground or pollute low orbits) that's still about 70,000 charges. I wouldn't want to be the one in charge of coming up with a control mechanism that could guarantee no accidental detonations.