Posted on 02/15/2006 10:24:11 AM PST by Neville72
Centrifugal force keeps the counterweight extended. Actually, it should be counterMASS, since weight is only used relative to gravity, and this is more of an inertial effect.
No location actually ON THE EQUATOR has EVER been hit by a typhoon. Flat out, a simple fact.
Duh! They got tired out.
Next time hire robots with more endurance. Geesh!
You want the rotation. That's what keeps the ribbon and the counterweight taught
ok, and when we cycle from the solstice to equinox? I do not recall a ball on a string with one central point wobbling...and the earth's orbit isn't in a constant circle.
even a spinning propeller blade doesn't stay straight...
A good ten - fifteen Years ago, Scientific American (I think it was) published an article dealing with "materials science", which in passing mentioned the "Skyhook Method" of reaching orbit without recourse to gigantic, belching reaction-engines. It may even be that Arthur C. Clarke himself originiated this concept, as so many others... in any case, the critical factor in "elevator-ology" is the tensile strength of the "long wire", which in the materials-science community has long been dubbed "fictionite". Whatever its nature --woven, carbon nanotubes, etc.-- physics requires that as of about 1990, "fictionite" must test 100 times stronger than any known material. In aggregate, it may be that we are approaching this baseline; or perhaps the height of the strand(s) has decreased. But "fictionite" as 100X 1990's tensile strength would yet seem a readily comprehensible baseline. The fact that robotic "crawlers could ascend IF "fictionite" were available is beside the point. Gimme "fictionite", or spare the what-if scenarios, however attractive they may be. Awesome rendering, by the way!
Are they going to get Jack to make the first climb?
This space elevator I think has good solid science behind it. This pretty exciting. My only concern is earthquakes and fault lines. Protecting it against terrorist attcks would seem to be easy a huge no fly zone around it.
--here's the story--
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast07sep_1.htm
I hope David Gregory was informed.
did nasa try this with the shuttle and determined that the cord as it waved through the radiation belt, generated an electrical charge ?
might be fuzzy on that so dont pounce
OK, maybe I don't fully understand... won't atmospheric friction cause this some trouble?
How much energy is needed to lift a ton 62,000 miles?
Does this imply a geostationary space station?
And once that 100 tonne cargo passes 22,240 miles, it also adds to the pull.
Still a LONG way to be dangling from a string, but not exactly JUST science fiction these days.
Scheduled a remedial reading course...
Ping.
Actually this thing should be more earthquake-resistant than a normal office building.
There are plenty of satellites sitting in geosynchronous orbit which always stay above the same point on the equator. The earth doesn't wobble to make the seasons - the axis is tilted with respect to the plane of our orbit around the sun.
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