From what I’ve read so far, a space elevator’s counterweight must extend beyond geostationary orbit in order to keep tension on the tether. If you’re higher than GEO, your orbital period will be longer than a day, so how is the counterweight kept stationary when it’s higher than GEO?
In: Physics
The counterweight’s not moving at orbital speed – if it was it wouldn’t be a very good counterweight because it would be weightless. It’s moving faster than orbital speed, and so its (non-orbital)period is one day.
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