On Saturday 08 October 2005 17:21, Rhong Dhong wrote:
> --- Wesley Bruce <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Not quite the bottom few kilometers would need to be
> > alittle stifer than
> > the rest of the cable. Winds at higher altitudes are
> > not a problem on
> > the equater but at ground level a few precautions
> > are advisable. For the
> > other application, solar chimneys 1000 meters will
> > do fine. For
> > aerospace taking any weight off helps heaps.
>
> What would happen if you had a balloon ballasted to
> float over the weather, with a cable dangling down to
> take the weight of the solar chimney?
>
> Would the winds under the weather make it useless, or
> could they be kept under control?
>
> For that matter, could the movement of the cable be
> translated into work of some kind?
>
>
Mr Dhong,
For your info, there is a website published by a company seeking
to do just as you propose-- send a 'balloon to space. It is called
JP Aerospace and their website is:
jpairospace.com
They bill it as 'America's other space program. It is quite a radical
program. They are working on materials light enough and strong enough
to facilitate a two stage system of space travel. First is an ascender, a
very large semi-rigid derigible type maybe a thousand feet long and
shaped in a 'V'. This will carry passengers and maybe some tons of
cargo to an altitude of about 200,000 feet, just on the edge of the atmosphere
and the end of buoyancy for derigible type objects. It is here that crew
and cargo will transfer to another semi-rigid derigible in stationary hover.
That they call their 'dark sky station'. It, according to their PDF, will be
about a mile and a quarter in diameter and look like a giant asterisk. This
is the lower space port for the spacer. The spacer will be about 6000 feet
long and again look like a 'V'. It will be fitted with solar electric
thrusters. Its job will be to pick up its cargo and passengers and then
embark on a long spiral path much like the European Space Agencie's
"SMART-1" and use its solar thrusters and a small amount of the gas
in the ascender to gradually pick up speed and achieve orbital velocity.
By the time it has gotten to 30,000 miles altitude it will dock again with
another space station, a rigid and shielded one this time, and deposit
its cargo and passengers. After taking on cargo and passengers for the
return to earth, it will reverse the process. The point is that all this will
be done veeeerrrrrryyyyy slllloooowwwwwwllllllyyyyy.......but safely. Not
having an atmosphere to give wind problems, it will not have to be very
rigid, and its large surface area for amorphous solar cells will give it very
high power for its electric thrusters. Right now it has a contract with the
government for proof of concept prototypes. Some of the Vortexians,
I am sure, know of this.
Standing Bear
Hey, I do not care if we have to build an Orion, any way we can get
back and forth cheaply and safely to space I am for. And I DO want
to see this done before I die.
