Method of tethering a space station above the Earth’s atmosphere with a tether extending to the Moon

Gravitational mechanics implies that there is a point between the Moon and Earth where a mass can be locked in an orbit that exactly follows the moon’s orbit even though it is closer to the Earth than the moon. That closer orbit would imply a shorter orbital period in the absence of the gravitational effect of the Moon. This special point is called the Lagrange point. Another way to explain this is that the orbits of any mass at that point is gravitationally locked with the movements of the Earth and the Moon so that at that point, the satellite remains along the axis between the centers of mass of the Earth and the Moon.

I envision creating a space station that rides along at this point. That space station is a fiber production facility. It produces fibers which come out in two directions. One string of fibers goes down towards the Moon, and the other fiber string extends towards the Earth. The fibers going down to the Moon should arrive at the surface within a year or two. At this point, I think it is true that the total mass and length of fiber which has been extruded towards the Earth will be longer and more massive than the fiber that has been dropped to the surface of the Moon. This is because the fiber production occurs at a point much closer to the Moon than the Earth, so the gravitational pull of the Moon is increasing faster than Earth gravity increases on the path towards Earth.

It will be possible to calculate a specific length of fiber that would be in gravitational equilibrium with the fiber that has been extended to the surface of the Moon. I have not yet completed this calculation but I estimate that the fibers extending towards the Earth will get close to the halfway point between the Earth and Moon at the time when they are gravitationally balanced with a length of fiber extending from the Earth-Moon Lagrangian point to the surface of the Moon.

Using this method, it will be practical to suspend a space station from the surface of the Moon along the Earth-Moon axis to a point that is on the Earth’s side of the Lagrange point. I wanted to get that idea out there quickly but I will follow up with more detailed calculations within the next few weeks.

As I was looking into this, I found the excellent concept website of LiftPort. They pretty much have most of the idea but missed the possibility of producing the fiber from the factory at the Lagrange point. Also, I believe the most useful part of this is to create a tethered space station where rockets from the Earth can lift material onto the platform of the space station without having to achieve orbital velocity and therefore consuming less energy than what would be required to reach a low Earth orbit.