Too Nerdy for My Own Good

[selenite0]

Wired Magazine has a lovely feature called "Found", ending the issue with a picture of some object that doesn't exist yet. I still regret not saving the one with nanotech "seeds" for building houses. The current one is the control panel for a space elevator car, with buttons for the different "floors." That's cool enough I was tempted to cut it out and put it up in my office. Except for one problem. Can you spot it?



The Mars departure point is shown below geostationary altitude. Nope. That would drop you in an orbit around the Earth (eventually colliding with the elevator). If you want to go to Mars--or anywhere beyond the Moon--you have to leave at 47,000 km altitude. Okay, it's a minor technical nitpick, but it would grate on me so much I could never stand to look at it every day.

Pity. It's a lovely picture.

Comments

[scottks.livejournal.com]

Just photoshop your own label over the Mars one.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Not part of my toolset, I'm afraid. I do Excel and Fortran.

[stevenehrbar.livejournal.com]

Here you go:

http://jargon-file.org/SEE/0000dz86.jpg

[selenite.livejournal.com]

SWEET. Thank you!

[wolfrick.livejournal.com]

Did you see the nanotube ribbon machine that UTDallas announced this week? The machine extruded (they claim) 7m/minute of about 3cm wide ribbon.
Their intended applications seem to be in semiconductors and so forth, but if we can fabricate nanotube fiber in bulk, from a machine that LOOKED like a robotic spider-silk spinnerette, the beanstalk concept is looking more and more sturdy and doable.
I want to ride to orbit in _style_... none of this six-gee crap. :)

[sambear.livejournal.com]

The other thing is that the Solar Power Authority probably should be the highest thing, since any other structure is going to obscure some of the sunlight from time to time, if it's "above" that structure.

Then again, the power authority may be far away from the power collectors..but there you go.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

The arrays have to be perpendicular to the elevator so they can track the sun (their axle has to be parallel to the Earth's axis). The admin offices can be anywhere. There's actually a good argument for having the arrays on a skyhook--you can transmit the power by cable and save the transmission losses from a microwave beam.

[phanatic.livejournal.com]

The Van Allen Hilton sounds like a very unhealthy place to stay, too. I mean, I'd certainly hope they allow smoking; the added risk is trivial.

[aeddie.livejournal.com]

Rocket Scientists. harumph.

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

*giggle*

I scrolled up onto this from below, and thus couldn't see who posted this.

It didn't matter--I figured there was only one possible poster.

I was right. ;-)

(Okay, there were *two* possibilities in theory, but I already knew *I* hadn't posted it!)

[noumignon.livejournal.com]

Do I get credit for guessing the orbit wasn't high enough, or do I have to know the actual distance 47,000 km?

Mightn't the Mars taxi have enough power to get you past 47,000 km by itself?

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Any guess of "Mars departure should be above the Geosynch altitude" is good for me. If you've got a powerful enough ship you could go to Mars right from the ground, but if I was running the Beanstalk I wouldn't let anyone get off between 23k and 35k. If their engine didn't work properly they'd swing round and smack into the cable. Probably void the warranty.