Rotovator Speeds was Burt Rutans plans for a manned mission to Mars

Fred J. McCall :

Again, I don't see how that works. The tip is always moving and
always under acceleration relative to the surface.

Steve is making a classical mistake. Clearly he has not bother to read the
previous messages carefully.

He is assuming that the discussion is about a rotovator that is spinning so
fast (ie tip speed almost equal to orbital speed) that the tip appears near
stationary in relationship to the Earth's surface.

Such a rotvator is easy to dock with but since at the top of it's rotation it
imparts a speed twice that of the orbital speed of the rovator cargos get
released at far greater than escape velocity making it of limited use.

There is no fixed speed that a rotvator must operate at.

The slower it spins, the easier it is to insert a released cargo into a lower
orbit - but the faster the craft to carry the cargo that mates to the
rotvator must go.

The faster it spins, the higher the released velocity of the cargo will be
but the slower the carrier craft needs to go mate with the rotvator.

Steve is assuming a very fast rotvator.

Earl Colby Pottinger


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