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Paper on Dynamics of an Earth Ring



 
 
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  #1  
Old October 12th 04, 06:50 AM
AA Institute
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Default 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
  #2  
Old October 12th 04, 11:05 AM
Paul Blay
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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  
Old October 15th 04, 11:51 AM
AA Institute
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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  
Old October 15th 04, 12:25 PM
Paul Blay
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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  
Old October 16th 04, 08:55 PM
AA Institute
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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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