From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Tue Aug 27 2002 - 10:43:42 MDT
Rafal Smigrodzki wrote:
>Eugen Leitl wrote:
>
>
>A 100 km high and 300 km long self-carrying structure (not a cable) made
>from diamond. I shudder to think what you would consider a miracle...
>
>### Lean Kass proclaiming his undying allegiance to transhumanism? A diet
>pill that works as advertised?
>
>--------
>
>Hey, how about an artifical mountain, 30 km high?
>
>### But only if made of pure diamond.
>
>But more seriously, wouldn't the space tower allow you to achieve escape
>velocity without the use of rocket propulsion? That is almost as useful as
>the skyhook, and the constraints on the material would not be so extreme.
>The large footprint and filigree structure would let it resist attack much
>better, and the total amount of material needed for construction would be
>orders of magnitude lower.
>
>Rafal
>
>
>
What it doesn't do is give you free access to orbit, as long as the descending mass == the ascending mass. What it does do is give you low cost to orbit, as long as you want to go to geostationary orbit or higher.
And it's a *lot* safer in case of catastrophic failure.
And if you ever do decide to build the space elevator, this would be a good first step. It makes it cheap enough to get your people and materials up to where you can work with them. (Yes, you can't even start work on the space elevator until AFTER you have captured an earth-grazer and tucked it into a working orbit.... unless you ferry out to orbit a truly immense amount of materials. So either way, this is a first step. One of the "tools to make the tools", and it may turn out that once you've made it, you'll decide that the cost of going the rest of the way to a true space elevator isn't worth it.
And it's a lot cheaper to build. Perhaps the space elevators should be saved for smaller bodies, like the moon and Mars.
-- -- Charles Hixson Gnu software that is free, The best is yet to be.
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