Voyager: Rise

[Fianna]

Specifically said 1/10th scale model, which would still be pretty darn huge.

[Riedquat]

As Chuck pointed out the premise of the episode is very much taken from The Flight of the Phoenix. A model aircraft designer is going to have to have a decent bit of knowledge of aeronautics in order to make something that flies. Making models of space elevators? Well it depends just how in depth it is, whether just something that looks the part and goes up and down on a piece of string is enough for you or not. Although it doesn't strike me as the sort of thing where there's a lot of generalised detail that could be applied to any space elevator system. Seems a bit unlikely to be something that would have much of a modelling community too, although I suppose some would say the same about trains and planes.

[clearspira]

Specifically said 1/10th scale model, which would still be pretty darn huge.

https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/unive ... ators.html

The site I read theorises that any practical space elevator would have to be at least 100,000 KM tall, meaning that the elevator Neelix worked on would be 10,000 KM tall which is taller than Mt. Everest. Perhaps I take my criticism back. Neelix actually does have a bit of experience. I was imagining something akin to a train set. Although I do take great exception to the idea that anything that tall can possibly be called a model - Neelix worked on a mountain elevator ffs.

[Madner Kami]

I'd rather argue it's about a 1 to 2m wide model of the cabin which can run up and down a cable a short distance in the cellar, utilizing the actual principles of the real deal or, maybe, kind of a tree-house in the backyard with an accordingly larger scale. I mean, people are building maglev-train-models in their cellars, while I am building actual remote controlled planes and copters (aka drones) in my apartement, occasionally enjoy flying in a simulator and once had a pretty extensive and enlightening discussion with one of the designers of the Type 212 submarine on a military forum, way back when submarines were my main schtick. It's really not rocket science, although there are people out there who have exactly that as their hobby as well... I feel you are making this way more complicated than it needs to be.

[clearspira]

I think Voyager made it complicated first by making me try and apply real world science to this science fiction show. You know what I think? I think the writers pulled ''1/10th scale'' out of their ass, not knowing what that actually means. Its the same ass that they pulled Star Trek's version of deuterium out of.

[Durandal_1707]

I mean, that's common enough that TVTropes has a whole page on this sort of thing.

[Riedquat]

I'd rather argue it's about a 1 to 2m wide model of the cabin which can run up and down a cable a short distance in the cellar, utilizing the actual principles of the real deal or, maybe, kind of a tree-house in the backyard with an accordingly larger scale.

That seems to be it, didn't he say it was models of the cabins rather than the entire elevator? The difference between having a model train and some track and modelling an entire rail network.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Yeah I have trouble fathoming the scaling of something that ends up the width of a spaghetti strand. 1/10th of Earth's atmosphere would be 6 miles or 9.7 km, so it might just be a stunted elevator of regular width in which they get a fragment of the conditions to simulate in. Doesn't sound too far fetched.

[remagynona]

A "scale model" space elevator wouldn't make any sense whatsoever if it was 1/10 or 1/100 sized. The reason the concept works at all is that the elevator goes up to a platform in geostationary orbit which is stabilized by a counterweight at something like twice the distance. Making the thing smaller would only turn it into a weapon of mass destruction as it destabilizes and comes crashing down on the planet.

[TGLS]

Maybe it was built on a small moon.