A climber capsule grips a tether anchored at Earth's surface and rides it up past geostationary orbit (~35,786 km), where a counterweight keeps the cable taut via centrifugal force.
- Cable tension is lowest at the ends and peaks near the GEO point, where gravity below balances the outward centrifugal pull above.
- Real proposed climbers travel around 200 km/h, taking roughly a week to reach GEO.
- The curve on the right plots tension along the current cable length in real time.