I was having a discussion with a friend this afternoon, also a long time
Traveller player, and the subject of beanstalks came up.  His position
(he's very influenced by 2300AD/Traveller:2300) is that beanstalks are
the way to go and they're hands down, better than the options of using
interface transports or landing a ship on the surface.  My position is
that they're economically viable, and only barely, at a narrow band of
tech levels from ~8-9, maybe up to 10, but that's pushing it.

My argument is that investors want to see a return on their investment
while they're still alive and that by about TL10, a 10kdton platform
could be made and operated in such a way to recoup the investment and
turn a profit much quicker than a beanstalk without the problem of
parts/spares availability.  You would need a full fabrication
shop/factory with the TDP of every part that was used in the beanstalk
given a potential lifespan of hundreds of years.

Thoughts?

--
Kurt Feltenberger
xxxxxx@thepaw.org/xxxxxx@yahoo.com
“Before today, I was scared to live, after today, I'm scared I'm not living enough." - Me