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Paper on Dynamics of an Earth Ring
Here is a short paper in which I make an argument that any ring system
around the Earth could not remain dynamically stable for long in the complex Earth-Moon-Sun interactive environment:- http://uk.geocities.com/aa_spaceagen...-dynamics.html However.... some experts appear to suggest that such an "Earth ring" could perhaps have existed for thousands of years, causing climatic effects on the Earth, as revealed he http://www.sandia.gov/news-center/ne...ringworld.html I wonder if anyone here has any views on this, or if there's some other factor that I ought to have taken into account in my analysis? AAI |
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*follow-ups trimmed - this has nothing to do with shuttle or station.
sci.space.policy has an (un?)official 'catch-all' role* "AA Institute" wrote ... http://www.sandia.gov/news-center/ne...ringworld.html I wonder if anyone here has any views on this, or if there's some other factor that I ought to have taken into account in my analysis? (uninformed speculation follows) Well maybe they count debris within +/- 15 degress of the equator as 'a ring'. Alternatively their article does rather gloss over the ring stability in favour of the climatic impact - maybe their expertise just isn't as hot in that area. |
#3
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"Paul Blay" wrote in message ...
*follow-ups trimmed I didn't realise these groups were moderated?! - this has nothing to do with shuttle or station. Not immediately, you're right. However, if the station were to be disassembled or expanded in the future by boosting it to a higher orbit, then the dynamic instability of containment of any resulting orbital debris in a perfect ring formation could become highly relevant for all orbital spaceflight. "AA Institute" wrote ... http://www.sandia.gov/news-center/ne...ringworld.html I wonder if anyone here has any views on this, or if there's some other factor that I ought to have taken into account in my analysis? (uninformed speculation follows) Well maybe they count debris within +/- 15 degress of the equator as 'a ring'. The scatter of debris over a 30-degree range would make the formation so sparsely spread out as to make a significant blot out of sunlight to impact Earth climate, impossible - IMHO. |
#4
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*distribution trimmed*
"AA Institute" wrote ... "Paul Blay" wrote ... *follow-ups trimmed I didn't realise these groups were moderated?! They aren't. That's not the same as saying that nobody cares what gets posted in them though. - this has nothing to do with shuttle or station. Not immediately, you're right. Posts to newsgroups aren't decided on the basis of where they /might/ be relevant in a few centuries time. "AA Institute" wrote ... http://www.sandia.gov/news-center/ne...ringworld.html I wonder if anyone here has any views on this, or if there's some other factor that I ought to have taken into account in my analysis? (uninformed speculation follows) Well maybe they count debris within +/- 15 degress of the equator as 'a ring'. The scatter of debris over a 30-degree range would make the formation so sparsely spread out as to make a significant blot out of sunlight to impact Earth climate, impossible - IMHO. On the contrary the global Energy balance effect from year to year /could/ be changed in practically exactly the same way. All you're doing is changing the area over which the 'shading' is integrated to get the total effect. In fact you could get exactly the opposite effect - /greater/ cooling from the diffuse version. In a very dense ring the path of sunlight could be blocked multiple times. Effectively all but the first block wouldn't count. In a diffuse ring although most of the time sunlight would get through each object that does block sunlight would count in full*. Anyway this is all pretty irrelevant to their article as on re-reading they appear _not_ to have modelled the ring realistically but ... "assumed an opaque ring, like Saturn's B-ring, scaled to earth-size" Presumably this was just a 'proof of concept' as the Saturn / Saturn moons system is vastly different to the Earth / Moon system. * Of course I'm over simplifying here. |
#5
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"Paul Blay" wrote:
"assumed an opaque ring, like Saturn's B-ring, scaled to earth-size" Presumably this was just a 'proof of concept' as the Saturn / Saturn moons system is vastly different to the Earth / Moon system. Fair enough. I am still coming to terms with this idea of a perpetually ringless Earth though! I had such high hopes that an asteroid could be carved out in a high orbit to give us a dream view of 'ring rise' and 'ring set'. It appears that through some mysterious cosmic conspiracy (aimed against me!), the balance of gravitational forces between the heavenly bodies would never permit such splendours... Well, when I mentioned this to a friend who's into astronomy, he was very happy and he said if there's ever a ring formation glowing at night to add on top of the Moon and light pollutions... he'd be first to buy a plot on the lunar farside! I suppose that's why god gave us the outer planets to look to for those kinds of indulgences. Abdul Ahad |
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