Re: Free Bubble-up and Rainbow Stew
Some good points here. To make an orbital elevator of the standard kind (geosynchronous) structurally stable, it would require a huge additional tension be placed on it in addition to the loads required to support itself. I'm not sure if people calculating the strength requirements for the cable are always taking this into account.
The upward load would, of course, be provided by a "counterweight:" a load placed on the end of another cable stretched outward from the geosynchronous point.