Space elevators and Dyson Spheres
- Thread starter Jon Jaymes
- Start date
In Underhill? Can't remember it's been a while.
Yes indeed.
Manpower. And most ships are in for long-haul, in-system shuttles and their like could be reduced with a Space Elevator.
Yes, economics. You can send much more material up to space on a regular basis than with rockets, or whatever Cobra Mk 3's are powered with.
Just imagine seeing a tether whizz past you, it would be something to see.
Alternatively, they could model a planet with a grand canyon sized scar around its equator, where somebody has destroyed the end of it. I recall from the Mars books that the tether wrapped itself around the planet.
Just imagine seeing a tether whizz past you, it would be something to see.
Alternatively, they could model a planet with a grand canyon sized scar around its equator, where somebody has destroyed the end of it. I recall from the Mars books that the tether wrapped itself around the planet.
Yaffle
Volunteer Moderator
The downside is time. An earth-based one would be about 35,000km off the surface. You can't travel on a cable all that fast, and to try and shift by magnetism (like those really fast trains) would require vast amounts of energy.
Just imagine shunting items 35,000km at the speed of the luggage collection at Theifrow Airport.
Just imagine shunting items 35,000km at the speed of the luggage collection at Theifrow Airport.
Don't forget space escalators for the slightly claustrophobic.
:smilie:
Here's a good read on the whole subject:
http://spaceelevatorwiki.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
:smilie:
Here's a good read on the whole subject:
http://spaceelevatorwiki.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
For bulky, low value items it would be ideal. You can counterbalance against the lifts coming the other way, so the weight would be reduced.
Yaffle
Volunteer Moderator
Indeed, non perishable non urgent things are perfect. Once it's going it would be relentless. So in an Elite setting having it take up (say) tantalum all the time and bring down (say) mining equipment it would work well, once the deliveries at both ends had started. Transit time could be months. Nobody would care, as there was ore getting off at one end and equipment at the other.
There would be a lot of working capital tied up on the cable, but companies could deal with that via any number of derivatives.
Space lifts are awesome, I entered a competition ages ago to produce some artwork for a possible interpretation of the space lift idea for NASA.
Would defo be cool to have to dock on one, have to get into an orbit to line up for landing though, otherwise that **** could smash you at 30,000km per second, might be quite hard to land
Would defo be cool to have to dock on one, have to get into an orbit to line up for landing though, otherwise that **** could smash you at 30,000km per second, might be quite hard to land
Nah, I don't think space elevators make sense in the Elite Universe. Why would I want one space elevator when I could buy a few hundred shuttles with a capacity of 60 units each and far more flexibility?
They're automated so I barely need manpower at all and If i need the shuttles for something else I can just have them fly there and do that... I can have them service stuff in different orbits, I can't have that with a single elevator, And if an accident occurs or the Thargs arrive, I'm not putting all my eggs in one basket.
Really, the only reason to have space elevators are fuel costs, and fuel in the Elite universe is really cheap. Why would you want to ´´reduce´´ shuttles when elevators cost much more and are less useful?
If the economics doesn't get you then surely the majesty does? They could be a relic technology so we don't see them everywhere. Or they could be an example of technological flamboyance. Having a cold, practical reason doesn't mean something shouldn't be there.
+1 for Space Elevators, ambient music and holding your wind.
Unlike what the image above your posts, Banks' orbitals do not encircle a planet, as such a configuration would be highly unstable, you'd need immense amounts of thruster power to constantly keep it centered around the planet all the time. A realistic orbital would exist on its own, most likely on an orbit around a star, not another planet.
Dyson Spheres/Ringworlds?
Well not a question really, but for the love of something, add systems that have sci fi concepts like this for us to discover...
Space elevators, Dyson Spheres at different level (Ringworld is afterall a partial Dyson Sphere).
If they are planned already, great, but otherwise, [REQUEST]
Well not a question really, but for the love of something, add systems that have sci fi concepts like this for us to discover...
Space elevators, Dyson Spheres at different level (Ringworld is afterall a partial Dyson Sphere).
If they are planned already, great, but otherwise, [REQUEST]