From: vince@offshore.ai (Vincent Cate)
Newsgroups: sci.space.tech
Subject: Re: Von-Braunian space stations: what orbit?
References: <296c8e2b.0308300822.3849d8fd@posting.google.com>
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Message-ID: <9186edb5.0309020918.1fde91de@posting.google.com>

Von Braun had his orbiting at 1075 miles.  This seems to have been 
chosen because it gives a 2 hour orbit.  See "Across the Space
Frontier", 1952.  However, he picked this before the discovery of the
Van Allen Belts
in Jan of 1958.  We now know this is not a good place to stay.

I like the idea of a hotel/space-station at GEO.  With this a rotating
space tether in LEO could pickup a payload from a suborbital rocket 
and toss it on a GTO every 90 minutes.  At the GEO station another 
tether would catch the payload.  The GEO station could collect
things for about 2 weeks and then do a few big tosses to the Moon 
so they would get there when the Moon was crossing the orbital plane 
of the GEO station.  Another tether around the Moon lowers payloads 
and lifts rocks to balance the traffic.

The mass of the hotel/station at GEO gives you a big ballast to work
with for your GEO station tether tosses.

   -- 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