Space Elevator: Difference between revisions

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* One of these plays a significant role in ''[[Super Dimension Century Orguss]]''; the ruins of one also play a role in the sequel, ''Orguss 02''.

* ''[[Tekkaman Blade]]'' goes one step further, with an entire orbital ''ring''.

* ''[[Kurau Phantom Memory]]'' has a space elevator to facilitate travel between Earth and a moon colony.

* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]''. Space elevator infrastructure is a major part of the backstory, and every global superpower has one of its own. In fact, whether or not a country or a union has access to one of these determines whether they're considered developing or developed. All three are connected to and serve as the distribution network for the power supplied by an artificial ring of solar energy collectors that encircle Earth and serves as the basis for the energy needs of the 24th century.<br />Aeolia Schenberg, the primary founder of Celestial Being, was a major contributor to the space elevator network, and even used his contacts with the many scientific communities at the time {{spoiler|to form an [[Ancient Conspiracy]], the objective of which was to gain technological superiority over the forming global status quo, even coopting a ''mission to Jupiter'' to ensure that their technological edge was maintained.}} Even the [[Humongous Mecha]] of the series were initially developed to defend the elevators from terrorist attacks and military intervention. (Supplementary materials describe [[Humongous Mecha]] which are basically normal units turned into elevator compartments, with their chassis attached to long cables which drag them to wherever on the thousand kilometers of elevator they are required to be.)<br />The series also makes a point out of how incredibly fragile such a structure would be. ''Nobody'' wants to fight around those things since even the slightest damage could cause the whole structure to collapse (and leave a third of the world without electrical power). {{spoiler|Naturally, in the proud Gundam tradition of [[Colony Drop|dropping large objects onto Earth]], one of the towers is damaged late in the series and is forced to jettison its outer shell in order to remain upright and balanced. The damage from the millions of tons of falling debris is nothing short of devastating.}}

* A Space Elevator named Spiras is built in Tokyo Bay in ''[[Silent Moebius]].'' Shame it's main role is to get blown up so Katsumi can face her past.

* ''[[Zone of the Enders]]'''': Deloris, i'' has a space elevator built on Earth, and is the main mechanism by which goods and people are shuttled to and from the surface of the planet. It features heavily in some episodes, and is a critical part of the plot in the later part of the series.

* A space elevator extends up from the Capital in ''[[Eureka Seven]]'', though it's only shown a handful of times. It's called the Megaroad in the movie.

* In ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' {{spoiler|Negi mentions that using these is a part of his project to terraform Mars}}.

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* In ''[[Discworld/The Science of Discworld|The Science of Discworld]]'' books, humanity will eventually build a whole network of space elevators.

* Kim Stanley Robinson's ''[[Red Mars Trilogy|Red Mars]]'' features a space elevator on Mars {{spoiler|and the effect of bringing one down}}. And by ''Green Mars'' there are several on Earth.

* ''[[Old ~~Mans~~ War]]'' by [[John Scalzi]] has a space elevator. Its center of mass is too low to be physically reasonable; this is used as an indication that the Colonial Union, who built it, is hiding technology up its sleeve.

* ''[[Old Man's War]]'' by [[John Scalzi]] has a space elevator. Its center of mass is too low to be physically reasonable; this is used as an indication that the Colonial Union, who built it, is hiding technology up its sleeve.

* In ''[[Accelerando]]'' by [[Charles Stross]], space elevators are used to [[The Singularity|disassemble the inner solar system into computronium]].

* In ''Saturn's Children'', Mars has one giant space elevator called Bifrost.

* ''[[Revelation Space|Chasm City]]'' by [[Alastair Reynolds]] has a space elevator on the planet Sky's Edge; the main character gets attacked while he's riding it into orbit.

* Robert L. Forward's various books often feature these.

** The hero of ''Timemaster'' owns a company that made him a trillionaire largely through building space rotavators and related technology. Rotavators don't touch the ground, they are large cables that are rotating slowly with good momentum. On Earth they just barely touch the upper atmosphere and are timed to touch down in specific location every few hours so a large plane can load a capsule on to the Rotavator. It should be noted the author was the head of the Nasa team that designed them...

** ''[[Dragon's Egg|Dragons Egg]]'' and ''Starquake'' feature aliens living on a neutron star who, after getting help from orbiting human astronauts in kick-starting a scientific revolution, rapidly advance literally overnight to building space elevators of a variety of types.

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* In ''[[Dystopia (video game)|Dystopia]]'', there are five space elevators located on or very near the equator, and four of them are the traditional kind. However, one of those is anchored to Atlantis, a ''free floating'' city in the Atlantic Ocean. It has yet to be explained how the elevator maintains geosynchronous orbit.

* In ''[[Sonic Colors]]'', this is how Eggman's [[Amusement Park of Doom]] is accessed. This being a ''Sonic'' game, of course, you eventually [[Escape Sequence|descend]] [[Rule of Cool|on foot.]]

* The world of ''[[Syndicate]] Wars'' has one in Colombo, Sri Lanka, a [[Shout-Out]] to [[Arthur C. Clarke]] who lived there. You [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twl1TC-LupM take a ride on it] in the final missions.

* In [[RefleX]] the boss fight against Scorpio takes place in one of these, while climbing.

* In ''[[Infinite Space]]'', orbital elevators are the usual method for space travelers to travel between orbital spaceports and planetary surfaces.