IEEE Spectrum August Issue Cover Story on the Space Elevator
Several people have pointed out to me that IEEE Spectrum's august cover story is about the space elevator. The feature article was written by space elevator guru Brad Edwards. The article provides a good current overview of where we are and what challenges lay ahead.
In my defense for not posting this earlier I was in the high arctic working at the Haughton-Mars Project Research Station.
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Comments
I cannot find an account describing how the tether from the geosat is to be spooled downward toward Earth. I realize the geosat orbit is unique, but it's still an satellite orbiting at about 8,000 mph.,obeying the free-fall governed by the centripetal force of gravity and Newton's 1st law. It may look as if one could just drop a plumb-bob over the side and down it goes to earth; probably not. Re: Astronomy magazine June 2006 page 24. "It's tricky launching a satellite from a satellite". Launching straight down is the worst case. The ISS orbit had to be changed slightly in 2001 to avoid a dropped tool that came back to threaten the ISS.
Posted by: Daniel K. Reitan | May 7, 2006 2:54 PM