Quote:
Kamog said:
Instead of cables, if you had solid towers supporting the ring, then you won't have to worry about the ring moving around. 
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That's even more difficult than the cables, though. The stresses on cables for just a planetary space elevator are getting close to the maximum possible that ordinary matter can handle. That's why they need to develop carbon nanotubes so they can have the molecular bond itself as the strength of the cables. A rigid structure would be much more demanding. Niven had to invent a fictional material (scrith) to explain how the stellar Ringworld was even possible.