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Dynamics of an Earth Ring



 
 
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  #11  
Old October 1st 04, 09:14 AM
AA Institute
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Tim Auton wrote in message . ..
(AA Institute) wrote:

Before anybody gives me that look...


Too late

I wouldn't want to be on an orbital space station with some loon
blowing up asteroids around the same planet.

Fair comment, I wouldn't want to either!

So what do *you* think would make a nice, comfy orbital colony?

I mean we've tried the Salyut, Skylab, Mir, ISS... and god knows
whatever else is coming next, with frankly very little in the way of
establishing a permanent presence in space. Granted, these were highly
*essential*, interim experience and confidence building steps. I doubt
very much I would have had the confidence to put forward starship
designs with biospheres and orbital engineering projects with asteroid
hollowing, had it not been for these early successful steps.

So, do we need a scaled up version of another ISS style station in a
higher orbit around the Earth or would it be more beneficial to grab
an asteroid and try a fresh approach? If the asteroid is carefully
selected using prior robotic surveying, it may offer us a wealth of
mineral resources as a bonus. And part of its excavation toward
building a habitat would come from the mineral mining.

I hear a lot of noise about "mining the sky", and how asteroid mining
could become HOT property in the future. But how many of those
noise-makers have the vision to say let's grab an asteroid around the
Earth, where it would be infinitely easier to mine?

The AA Institute is the *FIRST* science authority on this planet with
the exceptional foresight, courage and boldness to put forward such
confident and robust proposals!!!

AAI
  #12  
Old October 1st 04, 03:54 PM
AA Institute
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Also, all these man made satellites have position keeping thrusters, to
compensate for things like the moon. I have no idea as to what would
happen to this "ring" if they suddenly just turned them all off, but I
don't think anything major would happen very fast.


I've changed my mind about 20,000 km as a *safe* perigee height, as it
will endanger geostationary satellites orbiting in a constellation at
35,700 km.

If the perigee of the asteroid's orbit is 40,000 km and say the apogee
is 200,000 km then that may be a safe option. If the apogee goes much
above 250,000 km then there's the Moon's perturbing influence to worry
about, since it orbits at around 380,000 km.

Great, now all I need to do are some 'back of the cigarette packet'
calcs that show the Delta-V requirements to achieve a capture.

I hope no one gets too alarmed by all this... it's just some fun
calculations over a fun idea, which may or may not come to fruition
one day (depending if there's public support).

Abdul
  #14  
Old October 1st 04, 05:59 PM
Mike Combs
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"AA Institute" wrote in message
om...

I hear a lot of noise about "mining the sky", and how asteroid mining
could become HOT property in the future. But how many of those
noise-makers have the vision to say let's grab an asteroid around the
Earth, where it would be infinitely easier to mine?

The AA Institute is the *FIRST* science authority on this planet with
the exceptional foresight, courage and boldness to put forward such
confident and robust proposals!!!


Ummm... NASA funded some studies of capturing asteroids in HEO using
mass-driver reaction tugs back in the 1970's.

http://members.aol.com/sandycombs/asteroid.jpg
from http://members.aol.com/oscarcombs/gallery.htm

--


Regards,
Mike Combs
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Member of the National Non-sequitur Society. We may not make
much sense, but we do like pizza.


  #15  
Old October 1st 04, 09:31 PM
Fleetie
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Good idea, but this calls for another level of robotic articulation.
Perhaps a fly around robot with a vacuum cleaner style of suction
mechanism, pulling stuff into heavy duty plastic bags could do the
trick.


A vacuum cleaner for solid debris...

....in a vacuum!


Priceless!


Martin
--
M.A.Poyser Tel.: 07967 110890
Manchester, U.K. http://www.fleetie.demon.co.uk


  #16  
Old October 1st 04, 11:52 PM
AA Institute
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"Mike Combs" wrote in message ...
"AA Institute" wrote in message
om...

I hear a lot of noise about "mining the sky", and how asteroid mining
could become HOT property in the future. But how many of those
noise-makers have the vision to say let's grab an asteroid around the
Earth, where it would be infinitely easier to mine?

The AA Institute is the *FIRST* science authority on this planet with
the exceptional foresight, courage and boldness to put forward such
confident and robust proposals!!!


Ummm... NASA funded some studies of capturing asteroids in HEO using
mass-driver reaction tugs back in the 1970's.

Alright... but were they *cranky* enough to suggest carving it out in
orbit... give the Earth its first *naturally* composed rings that will
brighten our night skies with an awe-inspiring silvery light... and
build a colony inside the captured rock... that will eventually get
blasted off towards Alpha Centauri one day???!!! - LOL...

I think not. First? second? doesn't really matter. I am only
interested in what's in our best interests. I admit, may be the
commercial and technology viabilities will rule out asteroids, but I
like to think not.

Abdul
  #18  
Old October 3rd 04, 03:51 PM
AA Institute
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Herb Schaltegger wrote in message ...
In article ,
(AA Institute) wrote:

If the perigee of the asteroid's orbit is 40,000 km and say the apogee
is 200,000 km then that may be a safe option. If the apogee goes much
above 250,000 km then there's the Moon's perturbing influence to worry
about, since it orbits at around 380,000 km.


There's ALWAYS the Moon's perturbing influence to worry about. Have you
ever done any three-body problems?


Not really, but I do fully appreciate that anything other than 2-body
does not have a 'closed' analytical solution. (If you've ever been in
a 'love triangle' then you'll know exactly what I mean!)

There's a reason they can't be done
analytically, you know.


I wonder if NASA or other space authorities have done any ring
modelling around the Earth... perhaps the question never cropped up
before. I certainly think a twisted idea like carving out an asteroid
in orbit is probably outside the normal *appropriate* rules of conduct
in spaceflight research!

I expect it's something they will have to study in the future. No
matter what kind of orbital colony you establish, their effluence will
need disposal into space and sooner or later you'll end up with a ring
around the habitat scattered along its orbit around the Earth. Any
micrometeroid impacts will also result in a scattering of debris over
hundreds of years.

Especially when one of the objects is massive
enough to cause tides on the other object from 225,000 miles away, as
well as influence menstrual


You don't think the woman's cycle could be a coincidence?

Abdul
  #19  
Old October 3rd 04, 04:11 PM
Herb Schaltegger
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In article ,
(AA Institute) wrote:

Especially when one of the objects is massive
enough to cause tides on the other object from 225,000 miles away, as
well as influence menstrual


You don't think the woman's cycle could be a coincidence?


Um, not really. The lunar cycle affects a great deal of human behavior.

See, e.g.,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...PubMed&dbFrom=
PubMed&from_uid=14664724

--
Herb Schaltegger, B.S., J.D.
"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity."
~ Robert A. Heinlein
http://www.angryherb.net
 




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