Space - Rope - Earth

[GilbertGrape]

If a length of rope was stretched out and lowered from a space shuttle in to earths atmosphere(It's a long rope),could the rope stay suspended in space and also been in earths atmosphere at the same time?

[eps]

Read this book.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountains_of_Para...

[Bugeyeandy]

Don't think you'd be able to fit 300km of rope in the shuttle to get it up there in the first place.

[Blue Meanie]

Yes.. It's called orbital tethering, I think.

(Presuming the material can cope with the weight, that is...)

Edited by Blue Meanie on Tuesday 21st September 13:35

[Mr E]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator

[Hugo a Gogo]

would have to be much more than 300km to be in a geostationary orbit

[Bugeyeandy]

p.s. Climbing rope (11mm) weighs 50-75gm per metre. Going on the heaviest of 75g over 300km you'd need a shuttle payload of 22.5 metric tons.

Max payload of the shuttle is 25060 kg so i'll concede you might actually get it up there surprisingly.

Next problem I guess is gravity acting on the lower section of your 22.5 ton rope pulling the Shuttle towards earth!!

[GilbertGrape]

Bugeyeandy said:

Don't think you'd be able to fit 300km of rope in the shuttle to get it up there in the first place.

hmmm...ok, astronauts aboard the ISS knit for pleasure during coffee breaks, eventually knitting a woolly rope to specification.

[Bugeyeandy]

Hugo a Gogo said:

would have to be much more than 300km to be in a geostationary orbit

Rough orbiting height of the Shuttle according to the ever so accurate Google

[Caruso]

The shuttle is moving at over 17,000 mph when in orbit, so the rope wouldn't stay in the same place on the surface. To stay in the same place relative to the surface it would have to be >22,000 miles long.

[Gargamel]

Assume 10m of rope weighs 1kg

the last 10m of rope before the anchor point needs to support

1x10x10x300kg

so no

[rudecherub]

There is some interesting possibilities been opened up by the new versions of carbon via nano technology, IMO it's a strong enough idea that someone will work a way around it.

Besides it would make building a project Orion space ship possible in orbit, without the need for a dirty ground launch.

[Neil H]

I think the rope would need something heavy on the end to keep it tense, in order for the centripetal force to overcome the gravitational force acting on the rope itself.

[Gargamel]

Caruso said:

The shuttle is moving at over 17,000 mph when in orbit, so the rope wouldn't stay in the same place on the surface. To stay in the same place relative to the surface it would have to be >22,000 miles long.

what ?

[Mr E]

Neil H said:

I think the rope would need something heavy on the end to keep it tense, in order for the centripetal force to overcome the gravitational force acting on the rope itself.

Or a huge length of rope extending past geostationary orbit to act as the counterweight.

[markh1973]

Caruso said:

The shuttle is moving at over 17,000 mph when in orbit, so the rope wouldn't stay in the same place on the surface. To stay in the same place relative to the surface it would have to be >22,000 miles long.

The OP didn't say the rope had to stay in the same place relative to the surface.

[rudecherub]

Nanotechnology could provide the very high-strength, low-weight fibers that would be needed to build the cable of a "space elevator."

Nanotubes:

* have 100 times the tensile strength of steel, but only 1/6 the weight;
* are 40 times stronger than graphite fibers;
* conduct electricity better than copper;
* can be either conductors or semiconductors (like computer chips), depending on the arrangement of atoms;
* and are excellent conductors of heat.

Currently, the Cambridge team can make about 1 gram of the new carbon material per day, which can stretch to 18 miles in length. Alan Windle, professor of materials science at Cambridge, says that industrial-level production would be required to manufacture NASA's request for 144,000 miles of nanotube. Nevertheless, the web-like nanotube material is promising. . .

"The biggest problem has always been finding a material that is strong enough and lightweight enough to stretch tens of thousands of miles into space," said EuroSpaceward's John Winter. "This isn't going to happen probably for the next decade at least, but in theory this is now possible. The advances in materials for the tether are very exciting."

http://crnano.typepad.com/crnblog/2009/01/space-el...

[GTIR]

Would there be a stick on the end?

[Fume troll]

Gargamel said:

Assume 10m of rope weighs 1kg

the last 10m of rope before the anchor point needs to support

1x10x10x300kg

so no

30MT. Should be fine.

Cheers,

FT.

[rhinochopig]

IIRC A C Clarke suggested you'd need a "diamond" rope. Then the invention of Buckminster Fullerine made it theoretically possible - and Bucky balls and tubes are, like diamonds, just carbon.

Clever chap that Clarke fella.