Abstract: Themechanicalandmasscharacteristicsaredeterminedbythestructureoflunarspaceelevator.
Mostofcurrentresearchesaboutlunarspaceelevatorsonlyfocusoncombined-cross-sectionstructure.Variousstructuresoflunarspaceelevatorswereinvestigated.Toanalyzethemechanicalandmasscharacteristics,thedynamicmodelofthespaceelevatorwasestablished.Bysupposingthedensityandstressasconstantrespectively,twodifferentkindsoflunarspaceelevatorscalledfixed-cross-sectionstructureandtapered-cross-sectionstructurewereobtainedandcompared.Theresultsshowthatthemaximumstressoftapered-cross-section-structurecanbedesignedasanyconstantvalue,whichreducestherequirementofmarginstressofthematerial.Asaresult,tapered-cross-sectionstructurealsohastheleastmass,whichcouldbeconsideredastheoptimalchoice.

Key words: lunarspaceelevator, mechanicalcharacteristics, masscharacteristics, combinedcrosssection, fixedcrosssectionstructure, taperedcrosssection, Lagrangianpoint