Editing Space elevator (section)

==In fiction==
{{main|Space elevators in fiction}}
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In 1979, space elevators were introduced to a broader audience with the simultaneous publication of [[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s novel, ''[[The Fountains of Paradise]]'', in which engineers construct a space elevator on top of a mountain peak in the fictional island country of "Taprobane" (loosely based on [[Sri Lanka]], albeit moved south to the Equator), and [[Charles Sheffield]]'s first novel, ''[[The Web Between the Worlds]]'', also featuring the building of a space elevator. Three years later, in [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s 1982 novel ''[[Friday (novel)|Friday]]'', the principal character mentions a disaster at the “Quito Sky Hook” and makes use of the "Nairobi Beanstalk" in the course of her travels. In [[Kim Stanley Robinson]]'s 1993 novel ''[[Red Mars]]'', colonists build a space elevator on Mars that allows both for more colonists to arrive and also for natural resources mined there to be able to leave for Earth. [[Larry Niven]]'s book ''[[Rainbow Mars]]'' describes a space elevator built on Mars. In [[David Gerrold]]'s 2000 novel, ''[[David Gerrold#Bibliography|Jumping Off The Planet]]'', a family excursion up the Ecuador "beanstalk" is actually a child-custody kidnapping. Gerrold's book also examines some of the industrial applications of a mature elevator technology. The concept of a space elevator, called the [[Old Man's War#Beanstalk|Beanstalk]], is also depicted in John Scalzi's 2005 novel ''[[Old Man's War]].'' In a biological version, [[Joan Slonczewski]]'s 2011 novel ''The Highest Frontier'' depicts a college student ascending a space elevator constructed of self-healing cables of [[Bacillus anthracis|anthrax bacilli]]. The engineered bacteria can regrow the cables when severed by space debris.