Arthur C. Clarke, again decades ahead of his time. Now let's get nanomaterials capable of actually building one!
Posted on 03/28/2017 7:40:18 AM PDT by Red Badger
Radical skyscraper design from a New York City firm will be built from the sky down instead of the ground up Analemma Tower is set to be suspended from an orbiting asteroid 31,068 miles (50,000 km) above the Earth Tower will move in a figure eight pattern between the northern and southern hemispheres each day Solar panels will generate power and water will be collected from cloud condensation and rain water Building will be broken up into sections, such as business, worship, dining, shopping and entertainment
A New York architecture firm has unveiled designs for a skyscraper that is out of this world.
Deemed the ‘world’s tallest building ever’, Analemma Tower will be suspended from an orbiting asteroid 31,068 miles (50,000 km) above the Earth– and the only way to leave is by parachute.
The orbital path would swing the tower in a figure eight pattern between the northern and southern hemispheres each day, taking residents on a tour through different parts of the world - all in just a 24 hour orbital cycle.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
[ It will be moving 1,000 MPH. Hard to sightsee and if in the atmosphere it will rip the building from its moorings. ]
Technically it would be an “orbital skyhook” with an “cardio orbit”
Skyhook primer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlpFzn_Y-F0
Jump to 12:00
10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. 12 It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall. 16 The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal.
So, they’re going to have a skyscraper moving around the sky at supersonic, or high subsonic speeds.
Can’t see any problems there. Nope. None.
Arthur C. Clarke, again decades ahead of his time. Now let's get nanomaterials capable of actually building one!
Just for reference, the International Space Station is 249 miles up.
So would a jihadi use a plane or space shuttle to run into it?
That sounds like a twisted porn flick title.
This is the result of legalizing pot.
Life Is Just A Tire Swing
Jimmy Buffett
I remember the smell of the creosote plant,
When we’d have to eat on Easter with my
Crazy old uncle and aunt.
They lived in a big house Ante Bellum style,
And the wind would blow across the old bayou,
And I was a tranquil little child.
Life was just a tire swing.
‘Jambalaya’ was the only song I could sing.
Blackberry pickin’, eatin’ fried chicken,
And I never knew a thing about pain.
Life was just a tire swing.
In a few summers my folks packed me off to camp;
Yeah, me and my cousin’ Baxter
In our pup tent with a lamp.
And in a few days Baxter went home,
And he left me by myself.
And I knew that I’d stay, it was better that way,
And I could get along without any help.
Life was just a tire swing.
And I’ve never been west of New Orleans
Nor east of Pensacola.
My only contact with the outside
World was a n RCA Victrola.
Elvis would sing and then I’d dream about
Expensive cars, and who would’ve figured twenty
Years later I’d be rubbing shoulders with the stars.
Life was just a tire swing.
‘Jambalaya’ was the only song I could sing.
Chasin’ after sparrows with rubber tip arrows,
Knowin’ I could never hurt a thing,
And life was just a tire swing.
Then the other morning on some Illinois road
I fell asleep at the wheel,
But was quickly wakened up by a ‘Ma Bell’
Telephone pole, and a bunch of Grant Wood
Faces screaming, ‘Is he still alive?’
But through the window could see
It hangin’ from a tree, and I knew
I had survived.
Life was just a tire swing.
Jambalaya’s still the best song that I can sing.
Blackberry pickin’, eatin’ fried chicken,
And I finally learned a lot about pain,
‘cause life is just a tire swing.
Written by Jimmy Buffett • Copyright © Universal Music Publishing Group
The Artchitechs must have been on an LSD trip when the designed that idea.
Who the hell would want to be in a structure hanging on cables thousands of miles long?What a nightmare.
“Who pays for a firm to design stuff like this as well as their Mars House?”
You’d be surprised.
I’ve concluded that there’s good (not big, but quite livable) money in proposing over-the-top mega-engineering projects. Over the years I’ve seen proposals for:
- a bridge across the Strait of Gibraltar, including a 5-mile suspended span
- a single freeway connecting every continent (yes, I said “every”)
- an indoor ski resort in Atlanta (just a 10 minute drive from me)
- a floating ocean city
- ongoing study of a “space elevator”
- a mile-long cruise ship (lifetime occupancy intended)
and many others.
Thing is, all of these are within the realm of possibility. Strained, yes, expensive, yes, but possible. The computer you’re reading this on was similarly impossible not long ago. Elon Musk is pulling off several comparably “impossible” projects at once (mass-production luxury cars, palatable solar power for all homes, reusable space flight at 1% of normal cost, all gearing up for Mars colonization).
Who pays? Track down some ultra-rich people who are thinking big. Come up with some crazy-yet-useful/profitable notion that would cost $10B or $100B. Put together a one-sheet summary, with a note that writing a proper proposal will require 10 people 1 year ... to wit $1M, a paltry 0.01% or less of total project cost. That’s play money for a rich guy wanting to show off his futurist thinking and great wealth, and that’s a decent livable income for a team. At end of year, give ultra-rich dude the snazzy presentation for him to throw a lavish party over, solicit partnership for more research, and generally keep it going as a pet project of his for years; if he’s _extremely_ lucky & rich, you might just see it happen for real.
I would think the cables would break just from their own weight, much less a huge building attached.
Plus that asteroid won’t stay in orbit with a constant pull downward......................
1. Nudge a big ass asteroid into low earth orbit without accidentally destroying all of human civilization.
2. Develop building materials with sufficient tensile strength to prevent the building from breaking loose at very high velocity and destroying anything in its path.
3. ....
Not just the gravitational pull, but also the atmospheric drag from pulling a skyscraper through the air at 1,000 mph.
On the other hand, the massive electrical discharges created by the static electricity generated from pulling a skyscraper through the air at supersonic speeds will go nicely with the constant sonic booms.
The “space elevator” concept has actually been around for decades, since Arthur C Clarke thought it up in a sci-fi novel. People have been trying to engineer it into reality since then. Lately we’ve actually created materials capable of withstanding the incredible tensile strains; problem now is actually building the >30,000 mile strand and getting an orbiting rock big enough to tether it to. Once the cable is built, then running elevator cars up & down it is quite simple, and cuts to-orbit costs to near free.
This “hanging building” concept is clearly just a variant of it, solving the problem of tethering the Earth end of the cable by, well, not tethering it.
Stone-cold sober engineers can come up with some pretty wild concepts if you encourage them to. We don’t think like the rest of y’all...
Sci-fi classic, actually.
Y’all need to read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator
why do I think that thing will build up a static charge and cause a spark between it and the earth?
The satellite and the building will have vastly different orbiting periods. The satellite will be dragging the building by its cable.
The building will be subject to air drag, keeping it from staying vertical.
When the cable breaks the building will continue going forward for a while then plunge to earth.
Each country will claim the right to tax it as it passes over them.
Muzzies won’t know which way is Mecca and will have a hell of a time during Ramadan.
But the view will be great.
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