There is one use of a man-made vortex which was pursued in theory years ago, which might be worthy of a rethink.
That is the a version of the "space fountain" where a "reversed tornado" type of vortex is created, from the ground-up, above a specially designed power plant using the focused high speed exhaust from tubines to form a tight helix, like a tornado. The site is chose so that normal weather patterns are self-enhancing for this. The idea being to keep the vortex helix very tight untill the jet stream is reached, and use it to propel specially designed payloads into the jet stream where third-stage rockets can complete the necessary acceleration for orbit. This would require a succession of unusual-looking (spinning toroidal ?) payload structures with "virtual hooks" or airfoils for surrounding and coupling onto the vortex, one-after-another. About 80% of the initial fuel requirement and 90% of the cost-per-kg, for a stream of smaller-sized payloads could be eliminated this way, theoretically. Then the payload would need to be collected and assempled by robotics or a dedicated space station. Several tons could be lauched per minute, or say 25 million kg per day until the weather patterns changed. From a distance it sould look like a beaded string, but with the beads accelerating into space. The "Lofstrom loop" was one of the predecessor ideas to this concept of a virtual space elevator, which may actually make more sense than the high tensile carbon-fiber idea variety, which Jed mentions in his book. Lofstrom's idea used a "growing" magnetic assembly, but could be significantly updated for use with magnetic nanoparticles being seeded into the reverse tornado vortex... In any case, with cheap energy from LENR/ZPE, the idea would make sense. In fact, when the 'reverse tornado' is seeded with cheap iron-oxide nanoparticles and magnetized, it should provide both greater lift capability and allow a tighter helix than an unmagnetized reverse tornado. The payloads going up would actually help maintain and strengthen the vortex helix strucutre, if they contained SC toroidal magnets themselves. When done above an ocean-going ship (a converted aircraft carrier) the cast-off iron oxide would serve double duty, following several weeks of "heavy lifting" of a billions kg into orbit. This airborne powder would disperse over the ocean and settle to fertilize plankton and eventually remove lots of CO2 - not only is it biodegradable, but a super-fertilizer. Hey, this is "vortex" right... we have to live up to the name. And, for the survival of civiliztion, we may need to put some kind of mylar band of mirrors over the equator in 20 years, to reverse global warming, or if that problem has been solved by ZPE/LENR, then to put mirrors in orbit to increase the growing season for pineapples in Antartica.. ;-) Jones
