[AR] Re: Space elevators... was: Ozone layer
- From: Peter Fairbrother <zenadsl6186@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2016 22:37:28 +0100
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
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