The main show stopper with an orbiting cable based space elevator is the very large expense of transporting the materiel into orbit. The first "starter" cable...
Distance around low earth orbit is 1.6 billion inches. There is about 5000 tons of space junk. At 0.1 pound per cubic inch that would be 100 million cubic...
... I like it! Let's do it! ;-) ... -- -Ian Woollard We live in an imperfectly imperfect world. Life in a perfectly imperfect world would be *much* better....
... The cost of collecting that much debris in that many orbits then fabricating it in orbit would exceed the cost of just launching it in sections with...
Jerry Irvine
01rocket@...
Mar 1, 2009 6:55 pm
8531
... 01rocket@...> ... 5000 tons of stuff shot into orbit at 10,000 dollars a pound cost 100 billion dollars. Gathering and changing orbits using a solar...
... Unfortunately, yes it is a lot more expensive, even with ion drives. The delta-v needed to change orbital planes significantly is extremely large, and in...
You can do any plane change with about 0.8 times the delta-V needed to reach the orbit in the first place. ISP for ion is about 2000 seconds, where for...
... No, actually the worst case is ~16 km/s delta-v- for example with a west-east orbit you may want to access the east-west orbit. There might be tricks you...
... Totally. Most of the "space junk" is quite small. If you really want a tug to zoom around moving it all you also have to factor in the weight of the tug....
... There is one practical way. Use a laser to heat one edge of the junk to thrust it to an orbital change. If you had a laser tug with about a 200 mile...
Jerry Irvine
01rocket@...
Mar 2, 2009 12:39 am
8537
some of the junk in LEO could be used for a counterweight ... From: Jerry Irvine <01rocket@...> Subject: Re: [space-elevator] Re: Orbiting Cable Based...
... Given its density (nuclear shielding, solid propellant, dense steels), that is a far better use than "refining it in orbit for some rope or something". ...
Jerry Irvine
01rocket@...
Mar 2, 2009 3:56 am
8539
When you say "heat" I presume you mean vaporize. If we're talking about a regularly shapped item, this might work. I have reservations about continuing...
Ian- I often enjoy reading your posts, but I have an issue with your signature line. In actual fact, we live in a perfect world, we're just too simple to...
Let's not forget the EMP produced by nuclear explosions. We might clear the skies, and we might wind turning off the lights as well. ... at least we may...
... You my friend, are a pessimist; and are thus utterly unsuitable to post on this list. ;-) ... -- -Ian Woollard We live in an imperfectly imperfect world....
... I was thinking similarly. Very well put. The slingshot you mention is another example of space tethers. If the hopper(s) itself was arranged at the ends of...
... Yes, I think the best design might be two counter-rotating tethers, driven against each other by an electric motor at the hub. The debris is caught at the...
Just thought I'd share this with the group. Below is a reply to my email to Space Energy Inc. commenting on their efforts to place a demonstration SPS system...
... Since a sea level the horizon is about 3 miles away I am far from convinced that a 200 mile line of sight patch can be found between two mountains....
... You might be able to get away with less. Depends on what you are testing. If you are just testing atmosphere penetration then you just need to go through...
... You'd need two mountains 200 miles apart and 13,333 ft tall (or taller, of course) with nothing blocking the line of sight. Or any other combination that...
This discussion about space junk has certainly been interesting. However, I'm surprised that nobody has pointed out the numerous obvious flaws with making a...
How about transmitting power from a balloon and receiving it on a rooftop 200 miles away? The balloon would have to be above 26667 feet in altitude, and...
... What I am suggesting is to use aluminum and titanium as feedstock to manufacture an orbiting cable. This design was suggested by Paul Birch in the 80's....
... As I understand it, there's not really any such place; there's various orbital processes that for example, rotate the orbital plane around the Earth over...
... Oribtal cable is more tech ready that a carbon nanotube based ribbon, since we are talking about a metal cable, not carbon nanotube based cable Cheers, ...
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