How to Make a Space Elevator a Viable Operation
2024 October 22
Why current thinking fails.
An orbit in a mass field is a perfect Fragile balance between a given tangent vector and an exactly proportionate gravity acceleration inclination perpendicular to that vector.
It's an incredibly delicate balance.
Our Solar system is anomalous in having an array of planets in nearly circular orbits.
The flaw in our thinking is objectifying an 'orbit' as a solid, unchanging thing.
When gravity assist acceleration is used from a planet or moon that body slows down & its orbit is minutely degraded.
Too much of that utilization and the body will spiral in and crash into whatever it is orbiting.
If one puts a body, a massive body in orbit around the Earth it is in a delicate balance.
The vector forward in the orbit matches the mass involved to sustain that stable orbit.
If one adds more mass to that orbiting body without increasing the energy of the forward vector it will slow down because it is now distributed over a larger mass.
That means gravity acceleration will no longer match the lessened speed of the orbiting body and it will start spiraling down.
Some have said the Earth's rotation will pull the object with the ribbon/cable, but that is pulling down as well as around. It is not pulling the body in the needed vector forward at altitude.
The only way to get a payload to the proposed orbiting body without degrading its orbit is with a standard rocketship.
The first payload lifted on a cable can be done without immediate rocket fuel,
but to repair the body's orbit rocket fuel will need to be lifted to the orbiting body. Lifting that rocket fuel will degrade the orbit further so additonal fuel will need to be lifted which is exactly the compound problem of using rocket fuel to lift rocket fuel to lift a payload.
There is zero net advantage using an orbiting mass.
So what would work?
If one had [relatively] unlimited rocket fuel already in orbit,
one would only have to use fuel enough to lift the payload and not have to lift any rocket fuel.
So one needs to get rocket fuel from outside [most] of Earth's gravity.
One could ship frozen organic blocks from perhaps Jupiter.
One would have a thermal reflective surface and then could heat up tiny places to create steering thrusters to move it into orbit around the Earth.
Not sure people would be thrilled having massive bodies orbiting Earth. After all we don’t want to cause our own Chicxulub.
So one might want a small orbiting mass body to provide stability and then supply it with an orbiting fuel block.
As payloads got lifted on a cable/ribbon the fuel would supply the needed forward thrust to compensate for the lifting of payloads on an as needed basis.
2024 October 22
Why current thinking fails.
An orbit in a mass field is a perfect Fragile balance between a given tangent vector and an exactly proportionate gravity acceleration inclination perpendicular to that vector.
It's an incredibly delicate balance.
Our Solar system is anomalous in having an array of planets in nearly circular orbits.
The flaw in our thinking is objectifying an 'orbit' as a solid, unchanging thing.
When gravity assist acceleration is used from a planet or moon that body slows down & its orbit is minutely degraded.
Too much of that utilization and the body will spiral in and crash into whatever it is orbiting.
If one puts a body, a massive body in orbit around the Earth it is in a delicate balance.
The vector forward in the orbit matches the mass involved to sustain that stable orbit.
If one adds more mass to that orbiting body without increasing the energy of the forward vector it will slow down because it is now distributed over a larger mass.
That means gravity acceleration will no longer match the lessened speed of the orbiting body and it will start spiraling down.
Some have said the Earth's rotation will pull the object with the ribbon/cable, but that is pulling down as well as around. It is not pulling the body in the needed vector forward at altitude.
The only way to get a payload to the proposed orbiting body without degrading its orbit is with a standard rocketship.
The first payload lifted on a cable can be done without immediate rocket fuel,
but to repair the body's orbit rocket fuel will need to be lifted to the orbiting body. Lifting that rocket fuel will degrade the orbit further so additonal fuel will need to be lifted which is exactly the compound problem of using rocket fuel to lift rocket fuel to lift a payload.
There is zero net advantage using an orbiting mass.
So what would work?
If one had [relatively] unlimited rocket fuel already in orbit,
one would only have to use fuel enough to lift the payload and not have to lift any rocket fuel.
So one needs to get rocket fuel from outside [most] of Earth's gravity.
One could ship frozen organic blocks from perhaps Jupiter.
One would have a thermal reflective surface and then could heat up tiny places to create steering thrusters to move it into orbit around the Earth.
Not sure people would be thrilled having massive bodies orbiting Earth. After all we don’t want to cause our own Chicxulub.
So one might want a small orbiting mass body to provide stability and then supply it with an orbiting fuel block.
As payloads got lifted on a cable/ribbon the fuel would supply the needed forward thrust to compensate for the lifting of payloads on an as needed basis.
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