What would happen if you had a cord long enough to be in space and earth? (For example tying a cord onto a satellite long enough to touch the ground on earth would it appear to float?)

Question

What would happen if you had a cord long enough to be in space and earth? (For example tying a cord onto a satellite long enough to touch the ground on earth would it appear to float?)

In: Planetary Science

Answer 1

You are basically describing the concept of a [space elevator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator)

Essentially, you place a space station into geosynchronous orbit above the equator (technically you actually put a counterweight above GSO), and then run a cable down to the surface of the earth. This then makes getting in to orbit very simple as you can just winch your payload up the cable instead of needing to fly rockets

The issue of course is that with current materials technology we don’t have the ability (or economy) to build a cable long enough (about 35,000 km)