

Simulation and Engineering Software

One can simulate the design and operation of a space elevtor in software to an arbitrary degree, down to the atom where necessary such as the ribbon.


There are many models one could improve:

  • Make climber more realistic, using data from commercial parts
  • Simulating the deployment and operation
  • Improving model for the station at GEO
  • Designing ships deployed from GEO to send cargo and people to Mars
  • Modeling SE climbers for humans rather than just cargo
  • Creating a luxurious Mars and moon colony. What can you do for $10/pound?



Complete list:

Some available spreadsheets:

Additional spreadsheets available in the archive require cleaning


Where possible, free software and formats will be used to make it easy for someone interested to contribute.


Blender is the Ferrari of 3-D graphics packages. Is extremely powerful, has a huge community, has physics simulation capabilities built in and supports Collada.

Feature list:

Gallery of pretty pictures:

Online Manual TOC:

Complete Tutorial: [1]

UI Intro: [2]

Various tutorials: [3]

Wikibook: [4]

Finite Element Analysis

A full set of Python-based scientific libraries:

Other Python software for science and engineering:

It is recommended to use Python for scientific research.

Other Software

NASA's free code: