h a l f b a k e r yWhat's a nice idea like yours doing in a place like this?
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Without being all horribly PC, new-age or green, or whatever, aren't you advocating ecological vandalism? |
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We've done this one before. The problem with it is that the volume of dirt needed to raise the mountain one foot increases with every foot that you add. (I forget if it's cubic or exponential, but you run out of rubble pretty quickly.) |
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There is a scheme, somewhere in the so-called real world, to build a launch ramp up the side of a mountain. But in the end, it doesn't offer significant advantages over launching without rails. |
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you'll run out of rubble mining the rest of the Himalayas? Seems unlikely. |
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To reach into space you'd need a mountain something like 100 km high; this is about 10 times higher than Everest. However so big a mountain couldn't survive: pressure at the bottom would be so great as to liquify rocks, and the mountain would thereby fall down. In other words, a space tower cannot be built out of rock. (link) |
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I thought the Himalayas were pretty solid not rubble, Barney! |
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*inserts obligitory "Stairway To Heaven" reference here* |
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a conical pile of rocks that big would take tremendous amounts of raw material, so yes, you would run out of rubble mining the rest of the himalayas. |
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The space ramp concept is pretty thoroughly halfbaked here and discussed elsewhere, as googly link indicates. |
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K2 might make a good fulcrum for a space catapult. |
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Might also really put our orbit into a lopsided limp. |
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Orbit should be unchanged, as we are not applying force to the planet, nor ejecting any mass. We will just be moving a huge amount of it. Our center of gravity will move, but very slowly (this will be a government project, right?) so I think that even though the center of rotation will move a little toward K2, the rotational period might be unchanged as well. |
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Of course, tidal effects from our new appendage might render my guess totally wrong. |
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//increases with every foot that you add. (I forget if it's cubic or exponential, but you run out of rubble pretty quickly.)// |
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I just had a fun 10 minutes playing with dH's and dr's -> remembering how much I've forgotten about differential calculus. Thanks for reminding me how inadequate I am. |
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A simple dimensional analysis reveals that it's a cubic relationship, given a fixed height/radius ratio (ie constant slope angle). Treating the slope as a ratio = dH/dR makes it a lot easier to deal with. |
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It took you 5 years to work that out? |
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It took you seven months to read it? |
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well, on Mars there are much higher mountains then on earth beeing of volcanic origin |
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So if you are willing to risk that mankind dies out I could offer a way to get you a much higher mountain :-) |
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well I promised not to post until midnight, but I was more thinking about initiating a vulcano eruption on earth which would create also such a big volcano (at least we then would not need to do the shoveling). |
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But it would be hard to find somebody willing to host the show :-) |
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But yes, Martian gravity is also less then 40% from earth, so it is easier for their mountains too ;-) |
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// it would be hard to find somebody willing to host the
show :-)// |
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We have this place called Slough.... |
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