--- Zero Powers <zero_powers@hotmail.com> wrote:
> >From: Spike Jones <spike66@ibm.net>
> >
> >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
It was indeed!
> they
> >use a skyhook to raise blocks of ice to a synchronous satellite to
> use
> >as a shield from particles during interstellar travel.
[...]
> >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
>
As I remember it, the cable was dropped to the planet from the
spaceship, like a gigantic sling. I'll check this out.
In another book dealing with similar systems [Can I remember the
name.. nope :-( ] , Clarke has a small probe drop from geosynch orbit
to Sri Lanka, after which heavier ribbons were dropped and attached
to a mountain top, after which the orbiting station "extruded" the
tower towards the ground!
{spoiler follows}
In fact a cable car gets jammed on the way up, and has to wait for
the tower to grow down to it!
Michael
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:04:21 MDT