It could work - the cable near Earth is in tension anyway so it doesn't
matter that it goes straight down or not. You would need the mass that is
beyond you to be in a slightly different direction than normal but that
shouldn't cause real issues. The difficulty would be that the cable is not
pulled around with Earth's motion as easily. Only the atmosphere would be
exerting force on the cable which would seem to not be enough to keep it in
orbit.
On Sep 22, 2016 7:27 AM, "John Dom" <johndom@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I dare say polar beanstalk confuses me. Like a slingshot with radius zero.
jd
-----Original Message-----
From: arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On
Behalf Of Rand Simberg
Sent: donderdag 22 september 2016 0:12
To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [AR] Re: Space elevators... was: Ozone layer
Having it off the equator results in additional tension. It would be
interesting to look at the case where you attach it to a pole.
On 2016-09-21 15:04, Evan Daniel wrote:
Yes, the cable is slightly slanted and the payload experiences a
horizontal acceleration. It's a form of Coriolis effect. (However, the
cable is quite heavy in relation to the payload, so the slant is
slight.)
The cable doesn't need to be at the equator, just kind of near it. I
think the strict equatorial requirement is a popular misconception.
That said, I believe putting it closer makes dynamics and attachment
both a little better. (It's been a while since I read details here,
someone will hopefully correct me if needed...)
Evan Daniel
On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 5:37 PM, Peter Fairbrother
<zenadsl6186@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 21/09/16 20:49, Derek Clarke wrote:
Your country was settled with the aid of multi-month transit times.
The
whole point of a beanstalk is to reduce the energy cost to orbit,
and a longer transit seems a good tradeoff to me.
I don't think longer transit times matter directly, but overall annual
capacity does. The longer the transit time, the more cargo needs to be
hanging on the wire at once, for a certain annual capacity - and the
amount
of mass which the wire can handle is limited.
Something which has often puzzled me - cargo starts on the ground,
with a
velocity of around 250 m/s, then is released in GEO with a velocity of
3
km's. Where does the extra momentum come from?
If it's from slowing the Earth (should Greenpeace be worried?), then
presumably the wire is slightly slanted.
I don't see why not, but people insist an elevator needs to be on the
equator, as if it wasn't on the equator then the cable would be
slanted.
Confused,
-- Peter Fairbrother
