Make a ring around a planet that can shrink or expand instead of using a space elevator

Understanding
The ring would be a perfect circle and would not need to spin to stay in orbit. The circle would have no net force inwards at any point on the circle if the ring can have its position sufficiently error-corrected (continuously or continually and very often) so that the centre of the circle is exactly coincident with the centre of mass of the planet. On earth the ring could shrink to allow contact with high altitude balloons, helicopters or hovering jets or rocketships then take on a payload to be taken into orbit. The ring could then expand and carry the mass into orbit. To balance the mass you could split it into two equal masses and attach them to the ring at opposite points on the ring so that no corrective booster power is needed to compensate for any imbalance of mass.

The ring would be able to swivel to a different alignment so that you vary it's angle relative to the equator whilst remaining at the same orbital altitude all the way around the ring. You could also start the ring spinning in order to quickly transport a mass around to the other side of the world. The ring would be able to rotate at extremely high speeds if required because of the extremely low air friction in earth's orbit. Unlike an orbiting mass, the ring would be able to spin at any speed without flying out of orbit or needing to reduce its altitude. This may also make it self-stabilising such that it doesn't need as much power from any corrective booster rockets.

The ring structure would be dependent on having materials with a high compression strength rather than a high tensile strenth as required for a space elevator.

The ring structure could also be used in combination with a space elevator so that less tensile strength would be needed in the materials that construct the space elevator.

To make the ring more rigid you would have to make mesh structure with multiple layers. This would make it less whip-like and more stable but still keep it very low mass - the structure only needs be able to hold up the weight of itself it wouldn't need to be very strong.

Method

 * 1) Build an ever-lengthening tail from a satellite in earth orbit and keep building it until it goes all the way around the earth and meets itself again.
 * 2) Extend a tail from a satellite such that the tail structure always remains at the same orbital altitude (radius) from the centre of mass of the earth.
 * 3) Add more pieces to the ring in the same way that the international space station was gradually extended and contructed in orbit.

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