Whilst reading (why do all of my posts start with whilst?) reading the Gravespinners notion (see link) I was taken with the idea, but it had a major drawback.
The point is that they all spin in their graves, due to the rotation of the Earth, its rotation around the Sun, and the whole shebang rotating around the galactic centre.
What is really lacking is a fixed point to help harness the energy, with a generator and a very long piece of string, which would then run to each individual grave.
The problem with that is, it would have to be a large mass, sufficiently far enough away from the sun to avoid the being dragged along with the solar system.
Pondering on it, I came up with perhaps a better solution. What we really need is a counter-rotating planet, or at least a large body, to fix the generator too. That way it doesn't have to be outside the solar system.
I rest my case, and a couple of Tesco's carrier bags at the same time.
Although thinking about what would happen if it strayed from orbit, and the chunks floating around from what used to be the Fifth planet makes me think that maybe I am not the first entity to come up with the idea...-- not_morrison_rm, Mar 15 2012 (?) Gravespinners [not_morrison_rm, Mar 15 2012] prior art.... http://allisonprior.webs.com/ [not_morrison_rm, Mar 15 2012] Ponder Stibbons http://wiki.lspace....iki/Ponder_StibbonsFor [not_morrison_rm] [normzone, Mar 19 2012] It will be difficult for me to provide you with a contra-rotating planet upon such short notice, but for a small fee I can let you have Neptune's moon Triton as a loaner.-- AusCan531, Mar 15 2012 There was ne'er a planet 'twixt Mars and Jupiter. In its stead was the jovial gravity, which rent asunder any orbs-to-be.
Venus spinneth widdershins. Were that of use, belike through the ejection of projectiles from her countenance?-- nineteenthly, Mar 15 2012 >Venus spinneth widdershins.
Useful but still not the entire planet contra-rotating orbit-wise...I'll have a Stibbons on that one...-- not_morrison_rm, Mar 15 2012 Maybe Phoebe then? Rig up something between it and Iapetus.-- nineteenthly, Mar 15 2012 Do I take it from your previous replies that actually you mean contra-orbiting planet, as opposed to a contra-rotating one?-- goff, Mar 15 2012 It would be possible to work out how much energy Phoebe and Iapetus had relative to each other. Presumably, launching projectiles just beyond the former's escape velocity in the anticipated direction of Iapetus would transfer energy to it. Maybe that could be used to generate power through something like a reverse railgun. The magnetic projectile is aimed at the limb of Iapetus very accurately, shoots through a metal tunnel and yanks a few electrons along with it as it brakes to a standstill. Good for anyone who might be living on Iapetus i suppose, but the metal would have to be gotten to Phoebe in the first place.-- nineteenthly, Mar 15 2012 In a post far, far away... I questioned whether those gyro-balls (the wrist excerciser thingies) managed to extract energy from the rotation of your wrist, without reference to a fixed point. I think my conclusion was that the conclusive answer was that it's inconclusive.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 15 2012 >conclusive answer was that it's inconclusive
I love those kind of conclusively inconclusive findings...
>you mean contra-orbiting planet, Aha, I knew that, I was just pretending to be completely stupid, of course.
Thinking more on the idea, if it was possible to get a close enough pass to the planet Earth it might be possible just to use a very long stick, attached attached to a generator and as contra-orbiting planet hits it, the energy can be turned into electricity.
Wonders if it might not be possible to alter the trajectories of asteroids, comets etc to bring them within a usable range...goes and plays with orrery made of sticks and pieces of turnips,,-- not_morrison_rm, Mar 16 2012 //, if it was possible to get a close enough pass to the planet Earth//
What we need is to get the two planets to orbit eachother sufficiently closely that their surfaces are almost in contact. We could then cover Earth's equator with cat fur, and cover the equator of the contra-rotating planet with nylon, and harvest the resulting charge.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 19 2012 If we can find a planet with a big strip of naturally-formed amber around its equator, we won't have to buy all that nylon and can allocate more to our cat-skinning budget.
<sets Borg trap>-- Alterother, Mar 19 2012 Or cheese. Few people know this, but mature cheddar cheese, with a moisture content of less than 5%, can develop a huge static charge when rubbed with nylon.
(This phenomenon has been to blame for at least three major fires in cheese processing plants, and is suspected to lie behind several others.)-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 19 2012 the moon?-- pocmloc, Mar 19 2012 // cat-skinning //
<Twang> <THUNK>
Ouch !
If you start extracting energy from orbital systems, all sorts of bad things are going to happen; since your species combines the dubiously beneficial traits of greed, indifference and short-termism in almost equal proportions, any prospect of keeping the amount of energy harvested to sensible levels is nonexistant. You'll just keep taking power until your whole system disassembles itself.
You have an enormous fusion energy source a mere 150 million kilometers away, and it's good for several billion years yet. What part of this don't you get ?-- 8th of 7, Mar 19 2012 I should think it was obvious. That fusion energy source is stable. Won't do anything interesting for billions of years. Booo...ring. What are we supposed to do for fireworks in the meantime?-- mouseposture, Mar 19 2012 Smash planets together, obviously.-- Alterother, Mar 20 2012 Smash? or Combine and improve?-- AusCan531, Mar 20 2012 random, halfbakery