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Abstract

The advantages of a non-equatorial space elevator have attracted the attention of several researchers. In this paper, two static tether models are presented for studying the tapering of a uniform-stress tether using a discretization method. The efficiency and accuracy of the two models are verified by comparing them with models used in other studies. We then study the range of latitudes that allowed for a uniform-stress space elevator and evaluate the influence of the anchor-point latitude on the system payload capacity. The results show that increasing the tensile strength of the tether material can expand the range of the space elevator system deployment. However, a high latitude of anchorage would greatly sacrifice the payload capacity.

Keywords

Space elevator non-equatorial tether modelling payload capacity maximum reachable latitude

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Non-equatorial space elevator design approach

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