I wanted to explain my thought processes behind this in detail, but the mod description didn’t seem like the correct place, so I’ve made this post for those of you interested. A few of you may be aware of an event in Stellaris referencing space elevators as an “outmoded concept”, I believe I can explain how this is in a way both correct and incorrect.

For starters, an explanation of what a space elevator is, in its simplest form a space elevator is a cable strung between a planet and a satellite in orbit above the planet, an elevator car can then move along this cable from the surface to orbit and back again, hence the name space elevator. The exact specifications of the design can vary with the elevator car running along the cable or being pulled by it, as well as the cable and vehicle being housed in an outer building or structure for some or even all its entire length up to space to shield it from the elements or to serve other functions. Scientists and engineers have theorised about the actual construction of a space elevator, but we currently lack a material strong enough to make a cable that can support its own weight all the way up to orbit, let alone also support the weight of elevator car moving up and down it.

Next let me lay out how I believed technology developed in the Stellaris universe, it’s likely many species theorised about the construction of space elevators during their early space exploration periods and some may even have build primitive versions, however I believe as thruster technology developed further the price to lift material into orbit became far cheaper, rendering a space elevator economically unfeasible as it would have a high initial building cost compared to individual spaceships and by the time most civilizations had the material science to build one they would no longer had the need for it.

In my eyes spaceships are rather like trucks, individual transportation vehicles with a smaller upfront cost and (comparatively) little infrastructure and maintenance required to operate them, where as a space elevator is more like a railway, it requires a high cost to initially build and a moderate maintenance cost but can move larger amounts of goods cheaper than a truck, provided there is enough goods to justify the initial assembly. I am also going to assume for this analogy that spaceships have an easy way to move goods to and from orbit, either through shuttle craft or by landing on the planet themselves.

So, it would seem from this like there’s not really much need for space elevators, since even if they can move goods to orbit cheaper, you’ll still need a spaceship to move them between planets and star systems, so you have just paid a lot of money to slightly shorten their journey, however, what if you only needed to move the goods to orbit and no further? This is where orbital habitats come in, since its likely there could be great deal of trade facilitated between an orbital habitat and a planet below it, and with a space elevator a great deal of new possibilities open up, for instance perhaps the shipping of low-density low value ore up the elevator to be used in manufacturing that would not normally have been profitable, saving other more valuable ore and on paper, increasing the planets mining efficiency. There is also the possibility for shared amenities, tourism and many other things that become available, making the use of a space elevator in conjunction with an orbital habitat a niche but profitable application for what many would consider an obsolete technology.

Hopefully at least a few of you found my rambling musings somewhat interesting, I’ll leave the comments on this open in case anyone has any questions or thoughts of their own to add to this.