Re: shuttle disaster
On Fri, Feb 07, 2003 at 02:37:53PM -0600, John Hasler wrote:
> Pigeon writes:
> > It would be under tension, because the upper station is outside the
> > geosynchronous orbit. So the bit above the break would fly off into
> > space, and the lower bit would fall back.
>
> The tension would taper from nominally zero at the base to maximum at the
> attachment to the counterweight.
Unless I'm totally screwed up I don't think this is right...
everything below the geosynchronous orbit is orbiting too slowly to
stay up on its own, everything above the geosynchronous orbit is
orbiting too fast to not fly off unless anchored. So the maximum
tension is where the cable crosses the geosynchronous orbit; there are
minima at BOTH ends.
In theory, you wouldn't need a lumped counterweight - you could simply
extend the cable until the "loose end" had enough mass. This makes the
presence of a minimum at the outside end more obvious!
Pigeon
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