

'Space elevator' would take humans into orbit - lancashire
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/10/02/space.elevator/index.html

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Retric
I had an idea yesterday about the minimum distance needed. Now, I have yet to
work the math on this one but, rather than a 32,000 mile long elevator why not
try sticking something from the equator to just above LEO, and using a series
of orbiting satellites (or a cable around the earth) to keep it up (you would
need to deflect them). Granted you still need to add orbital velocity but if
you can get a useful amount of mass stable at that altitude you could build a
pair of them to safely get something into orbit using a long rail gun between
two of them.

I don't think it's stable but if you wanted to move a huge amount of mass out
of the gravity well it might work.

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DabAsteroid
Let's try to find out what I don't understand about what you just said.

You have a too-short elevator.

You have satellites.

The satellites are going too fast for their orbit, and by "deflection" they
push up the anchor of the elevator as they pass underneath?

What relationship do the "pair" of space-elevators have to each other? What
would the rail gun be for?

    
    
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Maybe you are thinking of an upside-down maglev train riding eastward at
greater than 17,000 miles per hour, on a track that circles the earth, several
hundred miles above the equator. The track is held down by guywires angling
out to the sides.

By the way, have you read this?

<http://www.spaceelevator.com/docs/acclarke.092079.se.1.html>

 _The Space Elevator: 'Thought Experiment', or Key to the Universe?_

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DabAsteroid
_can you get a stable orbit that includes a single strong deflection in the
direction of the earth?_

You are referring to an eliptical orbit, right? The satellite in this
elliptical orbit bounces against a space-elevator anchor at apogee, right?

    
    
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_you could probably add energy from the tower_

What tower? You never mentioned a tower.

    
    
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_the car is not going to have much orbital velocity as it's not at a
Geosynchronous altitude._

Indeed. So, what is the point of this too-short space-elevator?

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Retric
_Indeed. So, what is the point of this too-short space-elevator?_

It's just the seed of an idea. But, I was wondering what the shortest useful
length you could make a space elevator and getting out of the atmosphere seems
to give you a lot of options.

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DabAsteroid
Well, like you said, getting out of the atmosphere gives you the option of
using a rail-gun (electronic catapult), but you could launch satellites from
the roof a tall building, the same way. A 100-mile wide, 100-mile tall
cylindrical building could have a circular track on top, or spiraling up to
the top, that could perhaps be long enough to accelerate objects to orbital
velocity.

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Retric
Umm, yea that's what I call freaking huge but it could probably work.

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zandorg
The space elevator is miles off, so...

I put my money on Elon Musk and SpaceX to make space travel cheap enough in
the meantime, until we can build the elevator. Got to focus on the short-term,
the elevator is long-term.

