Can’t you place a space elevator below or above the equator? The tether would leave the ground at an angle but it would be parallel to the centrifugal force from the planet’s spin.
In: Physics
Everything orbits around the planet’s center of mass, that means all orbits *must* cross the equator
If you build a space elevator you need to put a big counterweight in orbit to pull it tight. If you built your space elevator in Miama (25,-80) then the orbit of the counter weight is going to take it over to (-25,-80) at some point which puts it off the coast of Chile and requires you have a stretchy space elevator because its going to get a bit longer
Building the elevator on the equator means that the center of mass can be placed in geostationary orbit so it always hangs out over the exact same place without you needing to have constantly running motors to keep it there
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