From: vince@offshore.ai (Vincent Cate)
Newsgroups: sci.space.tech
Subject: Re: Lunar Sample Return via Tether
References: <9186edb5.0312061749.206011fa@posting.google.com> <9186edb5.0312101309.4509af66@posting.google.com> <3FD89AAE.5A716AE1@nospam.com> <9186edb5.0312112210.6d51b0f8@posting.google.com> <3FD9C8E8.A32A0A08@nospam.com> <9186edb5.0312132223.5573dfe3@posting.google.com>
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Message-ID: <9186edb5.0312181833.3fd4bb29@posting.google.com>

My simulator sample 89 now has a tether pickup 4 kg from the 
moon, winch it in to increase the tip speed, toss it backwards,
and then winch the tether back out.  After this the 
ballast does have more orbital angular momentum relative
to the moon.  So we did get some thrust by throwing 
regolith backwards.  So Newton was right!  :-)

In sample 90 I winch a tether in and out to increase the 
spin or tip-speed.  We can really increase the spin.

In sample 91 I make a wave go along the tether so you can 
see how fast it goes.  It goes at the right speed 
(11.3 km/sec).  This just falls out from simulating the
tether with the input mass and strength, there is nothing 
in the code that knows the speed of sound in a tether.  
In fact, the simulator does not even know the modulus for 
Spectra-2000, which is needed in the only formula I know
for calculating the speed of sound in a tether.

As always, applet is at:

   http://spacetethers.com/spacetethers.html

Now it should even work for people using a Microsoft Java.

  -- Vince