This was great!
Niggle: With a trackpad, you might need to scroll "down." I thought it wasn't working, for a few seconds, but that's a fairly common issue with trackpads and mobile interfaces. "Up" and "down" are kind of relative.
Space Elevator
51–60 of 216 posts
Re: Space Elevator
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
And so what about the downsides? The ultimate target for terrorists. If that comes down and it wraps itself around the Earth, it'll be devastating.
My understanding is that it would be under tension and orbiting at beyond escape velocity, such that if it got cut off, it would fly away from Earth. Still bad, but not catastrophically. Maybe we could even recover it.
That all assumes that it got loose at the base and not part way up within the atmosphere. If 9/11 can happen, this can happen. All that cable and kinetic energy has to go somewhere.
Re: Space Elevator
#53This was great! Niggle: With a trackpad, you might need to scroll "down." I thought it wasn't working, for a few seconds, but that's a fairly common issue with trackpads and mobile interfaces. "Up" and "down" are kind of relative.
You may have to toggle the "Australian mode".
Re: Space Elevator
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
The structure wouldn't be able to passively stay together. If it was to be destroyed then it would burn up in the atmosphere like anything else. It is not made of a magic non-existent material that is infinitely strong. Of course if you had a massive dense asteroid attached that would not, so it makes sense to be careful with what is around it. But the orbital ring itself would break up and be no more dangerous than…
I'm more concerned about what's already within our atmosphere and isn't going to burn up. That's a lot of kinetic energy, and nobody says it's going to destroy the Earth, I said it would be devastating. You're forgetting religious extremists and countless suicide bombers.
And you’re both forgetting war.
Re: Space Elevator
#55 Caproni Ca.161 1938 altitude record
Insane. 17k meters.
Also there were many others which surprised me.
Re: Space Elevator
#56At 74km/h you would reach space (100km karman line) in an hour and a half but you would need to keep going for another 20 days at that speed reach geostationary orbit in order to not fall back to earth when you exit the space elevator.
At that point gravity will act slower though, so it might be enough to take up a small liquid fuel craft too.
Rockets will have abandoned solid fuel boosters long before then.
Re: Space Elevator
#57I love this. Reminds me of a thread I perused once re Orbital Ring Space elevator concept, and how it seems not only possible, but almost disgustingly cheap (in terms of the gains) with current technology. Not only would such an endeavor restore some aspect of pride to humanity, but the benefits are quite numerous. To name a few low-hanging fruit: The research done to make it possible, would definitely advance severa…
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Re: Space Elevator
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
The structure wouldn't be able to passively stay together. If it was to be destroyed then it would burn up in the atmosphere like anything else. It is not made of a magic non-existent material that is infinitely strong. Of course if you had a massive dense asteroid attached that would not, so it makes sense to be careful with what is around it. But the orbital ring itself would break up and be no more dangerous than…
I'm more concerned about what's already within our atmosphere and isn't going to burn up. That's a lot of kinetic energy, and nobody says it's going to destroy the Earth, I said it would be devastating. You're forgetting religious extremists and countless suicide bombers.
For a ring with a density of 10kg/m, that kinetic energy is about 5 megatons… spread over 40,000km.
It's negligible when it's that diffuse. Even if it didn't burn up, it's mostly lost to air resistance, with everything over a few hundred meters being limited to about terminal velocity.
And that size ring, is pretty useful.
Re: Space Elevator
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I wish this went on as far as an actual space elevator would, perhaps with extra visualizations of the heights of various orbits. The top would be slightly above geostationary orbit, since you would need the center of mass to be at the geostationary point in order to work.
Or more than slightly if you don't want to haul up a big counterweight but just use the cable itself as a counterweight. The Brad Edwards design proposes a total cable length of around 100,000 km. One very nice side effect of a long cable is that you can slingshot spacecraft from the far end up to ~Jupiter's orbit with zero propellant needed.
I would imagine rather than hauling up a big counterweight, you might be better served capturing a near-earth asteroid and hauling it in.
Re: Space Elevator
#60This is great. I just wish there was one way to switch all units. The temp. can be switched between F/C by tapping on it. The height is metric and seems fixed and then stuff in text bubbles is again imperial (e.g. mph instead of kph).
That is mostly because the international space community works with metric, so the Karman line is at 100km above earth, and converting to imperial units would be forced. Remember, there are only three countries that use imperial units; two third-world counties, and a global superpower.
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