h a l f b a k e r yMake mine a double.
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Jim reckons a Sky Tube is a fantastic idea... so he
improved it.
First lets examine placing a ring of satellites end to end
around the earth... a Dyson Ring if you like. To make
the
ring each satellite must be accelerated to orbital
velocity.
Once fixed together so that they form the ring
--- it is
possible to decelerate the whole construction...
What is interesting is that standing on a Dyson Ring an
observer would experience the same g force load... ie
there would be gravity.
What? ... decelerating the ring a little bit will introduce a
small g force loading on every satellite and every
satellite
joint. The load will be distributed across the ring as a
strain. Jim reckons the ring can be decelerated just so
long as the structure can maintain its shape under the g
force load.
So back to the Sky Tubes... Lets take a few (well many)
of
these tubes, that is vehicular tubes lofted into the upper
atmosphere by a balloon, and place them end to end so
that they ring the earth. Attach these tubes together and
it is possible to remove the buoyancy provided by the
balloons...
Jim reckons it is cheaper to make a Sky Tube Ring than
a
Dyson Ring because of the vast difference in ring
diameter
and there is no requirement to accelerate (and
decelerate)
such an enormous mass...
Cool...
Gravity Arch
[xaviergisz, Sep 04 2013]
[link]
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An equatorial Dyson Ring around Mars will prevent
atmospheric loss due to solar wind... |
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Might also be useful on the earth if the core does
freeze sooner rather than later. |
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On the bright side the ring won't require station-keeping thrusters 'cuz its CG will always try to be in the same place as the Earth's. |
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On the other hand the current longest unsupported span is 400 metres. Give us a shout when you've figured out how to bump it up to 40,000,000 metres. |
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Ya... it is easy if you allow me orbital velocity. But
then I loose all the neat gravitational load. Perhaps
there is a happy medium between g force, velocity
and materials? |
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Setting materials aside ... lets assume it is possible
to decelerate more than the
rotation of the earth. That is an observer on the
ring sees the earth rotate beneath them. If you
wanted to get from one place to another,
take a balloon ride up to the ring and just wait... |
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You will need to cut down you 1600 km/h velocity
first. And this could be done using all the neat
new kinetic recovery technology floating around
out there. |
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I still don't know why you want to decelerate the ring structure. As I have annotated on other planetary ring ideas, long slender structures are much more stable under tension than they are under compression, because of the issue of buckling. |
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Ipso facto - accelerate the ring, not decelerate it. Under tension the ring will become stable, and not be subject to any buckling loads. |
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//Jim reckons// ... Oh. Hi. |
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I suspect the Sky Tube would not be held in place by gravity and would require some sort of correcting mechanism to account for meteor strikes and whatnot. |
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However, I'm sure there will be space for a couple thousand solar-powered corrector jets, given the massive cross-section required to resist buckling. |
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It can be constructed from a stationary point on the Earth
in one day, when one full rotation of the Earth allows all
the segments to be put in place. |
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I think you're confusing 'can' with 'could'. |
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Which, on the whole, is better than my typical mistake of
confusing 'can' with 'should'. |
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//It can be constructed from a stationary point on
the Earth in one day, when one full rotation of the
Earth allows all the segments to be put in place// |
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1000 miles of structure per hour? That's nearly as fast
as China's rail expansion... |
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Best build it a little faster, you'll need to account for
a lunch break... |
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Haha miles of structure per hour. What's the human
reproductive rate as a function of tubular velocities. One
billion 6cm penises per second? Resulting in how many
babies through those same tubes per second. |
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That would seriously by a good speed to get it up at. |
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[rcarty]: Nine women and one month do not a baby make, or something like that. |
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[the porpise] - you don't have to worry about meteor strikes - their union contract contains performance incentives in exchange for ceding schedule control. |
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Meteor strikes ... which part of the world are you from and do you
carry an umbrella for that? Round er we just sit back an watch
em burn... |
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It appears that stress/stain is all about mass ... if you recall when
there was buoyancy there was no loading. |
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