EvMick@aol.com wrote:
> I read the article in analog on SkyHooks and PinWheels back in the
> eighties........Just for communication functions.....not to mention other
> properties of low
> earth orbit. altitude...
Fellow Arthur Clarke fans, help me out here. Clarke wrote a book
with a skyhook, I *think* it was Songs of Distant Earth, where they
use a skyhook to raise blocks of ice to a synchronous satellite to use
as a shield from particles during interstellar travel. Ive read all of
Clarkes books, but its been years ago, so my memory is dim.
In that book, Clarke has the cable and all being lifted to the
spacecraft, which is surely a mistake. Its about the only clear
example in which humble little spike will claim that the master
did not do his homework. Clarke usually works out the
necessary orbit mechanics in his hard sci-fi. Lifting the entire
cable each time is surely incorrect. spike
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