From: vince@offshore.ai (Vincent Cate) Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle Subject: Re: Space elevator (was The Single Biggest ...) References: <9186edb5.0302132135.7ae79a02@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.88.68.230 Robert Munck wrote in message news:... > On 13 Feb 2003 21:35:59 -0800, vince@offshore.ai (Vincent Cate) wrote: > > >This is 16 times per day or 64 times as often as your 1 time > >every 4 days. > > Well, yeah, but much smaller payloads (225 kg). In the design I have it is smaller, but there is no need for it to be smaller. For the same strength cable and a far shorter piece (like 500 miles instead of 25,000 miles) a spinning tether can lift payloads far more often (like 64 times or more). > Both are usable techniques, but I'd rather have one 9,100 kg > payload than 40 individual 225 kg pieces. I don't see any > way you could put people into space. I was just starting out at that size. Clearly I would want to build a stronger tether and also have it spin faster. But we want to build the bigger tether using the initial small tether. > It's also quite a bit more useful that the SE goes to GEO > instead of LEO. In fact, the space elevator lets us sling > vehicles to Venus, Mars, and Jupiter for free, no rockets. A spinning tether can sling things too. It can put them in a GTO and they could use an ion drive to circularize the orbit if they want GEO. > I'm not at all sanguine about the practicality of that rendezvous of > rocket and tether at extremely high altitudes and speeds. I've > walked through the description of the rendezvous (on tethers.com) > and feel it's really pretty dicey. A small slip-up could pull the > tether down and destroy the plane. Evem if the plane/rocket was hostile, the most it could do is break off the end of the tether. It could not pull it down. I don't expect there would be any real danger of destroying the plane. > >This does not even count the fact that we use materials that really > >exist while the geo-stationary uses materials that do not exist. > > Quite true. As I said, we need that one breakthrough. Your scheme > seems to require a fair amount of development and engineering also. Development and engineering, yes. New amazing materials, no. -- Vince ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Vincent Cate Space Tether Enthusiast vince@offshore.ai http://spacetethers.com/ Anguilla, East Caribbean http://offshore.ai/vince ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You have to take life as it happens, but you should try to make it happen the way you want to take it. - German Proverb