No winner in Space Elevator competition

Originally posted by sardion2000
That's it? Floating barge or skyhook it is then.

Seems to be the case in a lot of concept drawings.

Originally posted by sardion2000
There may be ways to counteract the oscillations, but considering the drift is rather slow moot point on my part.

You got me wrong, oscillations as in change of position of the tether relative to the earth would be very slow if it is not fixed. The thether itself wouldn't oscillate however, it would remain perfectly straight, only the position of the earth below it would change as the earth's axis changes slowly, with a period of around one year.

If it would be fixed permanently to the ground however, say to the equator, than at maximum amplitude, this is during summer and winter equinox, the tether itself would oscillate thousands of kilometers sideways (perpendicular to the equator) and a few hundred kilometers up and down, with a period of around 24 hours. That's a very fast drift and could probably rip it to pieces.

[edit on 27-10-2005 by Simon666]

Sorry, I correct what I've said before. It looks like I only considered geosynchronous orbits without considering geostationary orbits. Geostationary ones can remain fixed.

From celestrak.com...
Since the geostationary orbital plane is not coincident with the plane of the earth's orbit (the ecliptic) or that of the moon's orbit, the gravitational attraction of the sun and the moon act to pull the geostationary satellites out of their equatorial orbit, gradually increasing each satellite's orbital inclination.

So it depends on what orbit would be considered for the cable. A geostationary one seems to require a lot of fuel to keep it in place (I think such a cable would be pretty heavy) as its orbital plane is not coincident with the plane of the earth's orbit, which was the one I considered to put the space cable in.

[edit on 27-10-2005 by Simon666]

Sardion2000
or skyhook it is then.

Those are dead and gone. The skyhook has thought to be better because weather would have no effect (cause its above it all), and they didn't think we had the technology for the cable to be all the way down to earth...but its now known that carbon nanotubes can be made strong enough.

[edit on 27-10-2005 by Murcielago]