There is no atmosphere 30,000 miles up, so no friction for orbital decay. The moon is receding from earth about 1.5 inches per year because it is not in geosynchronous orbit. The earth’s spin is faster than its orbital period, and tidal friction is pushing it away. Geosynchronous satellites do need to correct their orbits occasionally because of tidal forces of the moon and other objects, however. But if we can bring an asteroid into earth orbit, we should also be able to correct it occasionally. We’re talking about a small asteroid, not a flying mountain.
Did you forget about the big chunk of building hanging in the atmo?
We’re talking about a small asteroid, not a flying mountain.
A flying (floating) mountain is precisely what they are talking about. Just that its an extra-terrestrial mountain.
Given that any part of a structure is being dragged through a fluid, energy is dissipated. That energy comes from the kinetics of the mass moving in a forced-orbit (asteroid counter-mass).
The lower end of the system is moving at less velocity than orbital for that altitude—the upper end is moving at higher velocity than needed for that orbital level. Center-mass is the only point of the structure which travels at the appropriate velocity for it’s orbital level.
Tidal accelerations increase geometrically as the distance between two bodies decreases. The tidal bulge of the Earth is always to the East of a line connecting the centers of the Earth and Moon, providing the small acceleration raising the Moon’s orbit. Will eventually lose the total solar eclipse sometime down the line.