Re: SPACE: Mass transit idea

Michael Lorrey (retroman@tpk.net)
Sat, 04 Jan 1997 17:00:46 -0500


Mark Grant wrote:
>
> On Mon, 30 Dec 1996, Michael Lorrey wrote:
>
> > Putting some old Thunkthussp onto the problem, I concieved another type
> > of construction, that we could call a Lorrey Loop, if it hasn't already
> > been thought of yet by someone else. (besides, it would really truck
> > too!) ;)
>
> This, or something very similar to it, is in 'Man and the Planets' by
> Duncan Lunan. Don't have my copy handy. That book includes many
> interesting methods of travelling around the solar system.
>

Thanks Mark.

After some discussions with Hal Finney, and some more involved
calculations, I've developed a more final concept for the Lorrey Loop.
Its rather convoluted, but actually a lot more feasible and basic than
many beanstalk concepts out there. The attached diagram shows the path
that the cars would take, relative to the orbiting GEO stations. NOTE:
THe cars in an absolute sense will be following a classic Hohmann
elliptical transfer orbit, which when viewed from a GEO station, would
appear to cross over itself as the cars angular velocity drops below
that of the rotating earth.

With consideration for Kennita, I'm using a GIF format in greyscale, so
its less than 20 K, which should load easily (thats the best I could do
to get sufficient resolution).

According to my caculations, this concept should fly.....

-- 
TANSTAAFL!!!

Michael Lorrey ------------------------------------------------------------ President retroman@tpk.net Northstar Technologies Agent Lorrey@ThePentagon.com Inventor of the Lorrey Drive Silo_1013@ThePentagon.com

Website: http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/ Now Featuring: My Own Nuclear Espionage Agency (MONEA) http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/MONEA1.htm MIKEYMAS(tm): The New Internet Holiday http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/mikymas1.htm Transhumans of New Hampshire (>HNH) http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/TRANSHNH.htm ------------------------------------------------------------ Transhumanist, Inventor, Webmaster, Ski Guide, Entrepreneur, Artist, Outdoorsman, Libertarian, Certified Genius. ------------------------------------------------------------ If I saw further than others, it is because I had an unjoggled view from standing on my own two feet. - Mike Lorrey