We don't need no stinkin' cable car to space!
Posted on 02/15/2006 7:54:40 PM PST by FARS
That's what the three balloons are for!
What goes up must come down!
That first 100 tons is going to require 100 tons be brought down at the same time; otherwise the center of mass doesn't stay in orbit.
It's so much fun to watch these promoters fight over your tax dollars. Next they'll be asking us to help pay for new car designs that don't save energy, the earth, or money .... oh, that's right they already do!
Are they putting parachutes on that 100 tons? I'd hate to be under the falling load if the cable snapped! Of course, I trust that they will have thought of that...
Screw up the entire world's electro-potential gradient and the MIB pay you a quick visit. Method #1 : an ice dart gun = instant heart attack. Method #2 : silencer, plastic body bag, pour in 3 gallons of special enzymes, 3 hours later pour the goo-that-was-you down the drain...doesn't bother the PH value of the septic system too much(federally mandated environmental constraints)....
Yes, back in the salad days of the star wars program a small splinter group in the aerospace community was working on just that concept(EMSL), a spinoff of the KKV(Kinetic Kill Vehicle). Did you know that one pound in LEO is worth 4 KWH(100 miles up, moving at 5 mps). That same pound to LEO on the shuttle costs $20,000+, a 5 order magnitude cost difference. My idea was a 1/2 mile diameter ring and 1g acceleration of 10 kg spear-shaped projectiles, a machine gun burst every 15 minutes. Best idea was the quenched super conducting rings : turn off the rings just in front of the sabot-ring(carrying the projectile)in a 300 ft long cannon(100,000g acceleration). You could put 1 to 2 shuttle loads/day in LEO for postage stamp rates. But, sigh, Reagan's Star Wars strategy broke the USSR financially and funding was cut to near zero, and NASA is a vested interest just like any other self-protecting bureaucracy...and so we still have horribly inefficient rockets instead of super efficient EMSL. Such is the way of the world...
Or, we could just turn the earth in to a big space ship?
Or, we could build an elevator equidistant and opposite each other, a big pole through the world, sticking out into space on two ends. Then we could probably solve the worlds energy issues.
Would'nt it be easier if we dangled a long rope off the moon or mars or something, and threw it all the way down to earth?
Does the space shuttle get hot upon reentry because its hot in space, just before getting to earths atmosphere, or is it because the high rate of speed of the space shuttle? If the shuttle kind of drifted slowly into earths atmosphere would it get hot?
The speed of the shuttle when it encounters the thickening atmosphere results in friction and therefore heat.
You mean if it brings the entree before the appetizer?
No it wouldn't.
Looks like you're a little farther ahead on a good idea.
We simply need a location where the supersonic launch sounds won't disturb the surroundings.
Great Basin N. P. Nevada has a mountain in the middle, 13,000 ft Wheeler peak.
Nothing for miles around...
Yes, back in 1988 I was tromping around Porcupine Butte in central Montana as a possible EMSL launch site, or Black Butte near Roy, MT with the ring around the mountain. Vast open area to the southeast(your launch vector)but small problem : there is a D4 minuteman missile silo right at the base of the mountain, and the mountain itself is federal property(because of the missile silo). So after awhile and star wars funding being terminated, I realized that after beating a dead horse for awhile you realize the horse is actually DEAD...and move on. Yes, it's still do-able, in NV or elsewhere but with NASA as a vested interest standing in the way...don't hold your breath waiting for the superior EMSL concept to happen. We in the new energy movement are into AG now, we'll leave NASA in the dust, and mine mercury for lots of Au79...evolution means today's dumb idiots are tomorrow's dirt...
The earth already IS a big space ship sailing along thru the vacuum, the PROBLEM is getting OFF the space ship the first 100 miles or so(for wannabe astronauts). One problem with a long rope or elevator cable is LIGHTNING. The ionosphere at 50 to 100 miles up is positively charged by solar radiation(electron deficiency), the earth below is negatively charged(excess electrons). Thus a spherical capacitor that has a 400,000 V potential and lightning naturally discharges(shorts out)that capacitor at about 1800 Amps as average, world wide current flow....now if you PENETRATE that VAST capacitor-area with a tiny little cable, even if it's a near-perfect insulator, that 400,000 V potential is going to find a way to flow along it. You'll get the BIGGEST lightning bolt in history, and a plasma-trail where your cable USED to be...as to hot gases on the shuttle coming back thru the atmosphere, that's gas drag(aero-braking is what they call it), trading coherent velocity for random heat, same thing happens in your disc brakes...which reminds me : met the guy who originally designed the shuttle brakes(20 years ago), that burned up on landing, interesting story...
Hey, I've got a spare Flux Capacitor I can loan you.
We don't need no stinkin' cable car to space!
I'm sure that they will be very effective 62,000 miles out, won't they?
(/sarc.)
Can't have it going 24/7/525600, you know.
No, no, the solar-powered lifters' union will insist on a two week vacation.
ping
Well then,
You have probably considered a possiblity I've been thinking through, looking beyond the AG breakthrough (presuming you have been following the super-conducting / rotation field threads).
As I recall, planet cores have progressively denser materials as you go deeper, which would make one think a small concentrated area of PT/AU/PB would exist near the center.
As you know the planet between Mars and Jupiter disintegrated some eons ago, and metallic meteors here on earth command a premium, presumably coming from more toward the core of that planet. Since most of the debris is still in orbit, that leaves a treasure-trove some where among the asteroid belt.
A survey probe, equipped to land on asteroids, blow off enough dust and get a deeper sample, could turn up some interesting metal deposits (Pre-Qualified by density and electromagnetic analysis, of course).
Once identified and claimed by the government as an object suitable for capture, it could be pushed by rocket until it arrives at the L1 spot between earth and the moon, where it would have a stable position. We have only one new observatory in that spot now, but it would have expired by this time frame.
From that point a carbon tether could be lowered to a suitable LEO rondezvous point, and since orbital velocity would not be needed to get there, something not much more than Rutan's rubber-fueled space craft could reach it.
At that point, any tug would be held in place by the mass of the captured asteroid, energy for the up and down trips would be provided by the energy channeled through the ribbon, and anything which could bounce a cargo up to the tether bottom would find a handy platform waiting for boost to the L1 point.
All so much conjecture at this point but you get the drift... Cargo could go up and down.
My favorite Zep anecdote. Each of the members came up with a symbol for the album cover. Jimmy Page has always kept the meaning of his symbol a secret. Well, almost always. Robert Plante said "Jimmy once offered to tell me the meaning of his symbol. But he said he would only tell me once. He told me, but I've forgotten what it was. And he won't tell me again." 8-)
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