Asri-unix.647
net.space
utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!duke!chico!harpo!mhtsa!eagle!ihnss!ucbvax!menlo70!sri-unix!REM@MIT-MC
Tue Jan 26 21:25:15 1982
Collisions with skinny skyhook
From: Robert Elton Maas <REM MIT-MC AT>
Sigh. Because a skyhook travels at non-orbital velocity everywhere except
at its center (geosync for fixed hook, LEO for spinning hook), it
sweeps out a volume of space, coliding with native material at near
orbital velocities, unlike normal small orbiting objects which bump
into other orbiting objects only at perturbation velocities which
are a couple orders of magnitude less than orbital velocities.
Thus skyhooks have much greater problems, even in absense of manmade
orbiting projectiles, than small orbiting satellites do.

Does that make skyhooks impractical, after all there will always be
a rain of new cosmic debris drifting into Earth orbit to replenish
any area that we sweep clean?

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