Aucbvax.5457
fa.space
utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!space
Sun Dec 13 03:41:49 1981
SPACE Digest V2 #58
>From OTA@S1-A Sun Dec 13 03:40:36 1981
SPACE Digest Volume 2 : Issue 58
Today's Topics:
Ultimate limits
Space Elevator
cost of power for laser launch
Penthouse please
Penthouse, Yes Sir!
Strong cables
Space Elevator
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From: FONER@MIT-AI
Date: 12/12/81 22:42:02
Subject: Ultimate limits
To: Space-Enthusiasts at MIT-MC
I know this is a little off the subject, but as long as somebody
brought it up... what ARE the ultimate limits on matter? How is the
maximum theoretical strength of matter computed, and what is it?
What, for that matter, is the maximum strength of single crystals,
theoretical or measured?
Again, what's the theoretical limit on fuel power to mass, and how is
it arrived at? Any such experts out there?
Thanx.
<LNF>
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Date: 13 December 1981 04:42-EST
From: Jerry E. Pournelle <POURNE MIT-MC AT>
Subject: Space Elevator
To: CSVAX.wildbill at UCB-C70
cc: SPACE-ENTHUSIASTS at MIT-MC
Dr. Charles Sheffield, then President of AAS, did a bit on space
cables out of Kevlar +; better, really, than Clarke's, and
written at about the same time.
HPM (Hans Moravec) has done some good analyses of space cables
also; as have Minsky and Lowell Wood.
------------------------------
Date: 13 December 1981 04:48-EST
From: Jerry E. Pournelle <POURNE MIT-MC AT>
Subject: cost of power for laser launch
To: VaughanW at HI-MULTICS
cc: SPACE-ENTHUSIASTS at MIT-MC
At then current interest rates I worked out the whole cost of
building nuclear power plants in Baja Calif (thus avoiding the
permit problems of building them in USA); bribing officials
there; providing security; building transmission lines to the US
power grid; building lasers; and setting up a launch system.
The power is to be sold to the US when not used to launch
spacecraft. Admittedly it is fiction, but for a multi-billion
buck investment Hansen Enterprises (in my stories) got a very
handsome return on investment, this in a time of economic
stagnation in the US. See the book "HIGH JUSTICE" Pocket, about
1979 for details. (I make about .20 on each copy sold, so all
y'all go buy one and make me rich.)
JEP
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Date: 13 December 1981 04:49-EST
From: Jerry E. Pournelle <POURNE MIT-MC AT>
Subject: Penthouse please
To: Tavares.Multics at MIT-MULTICS
cc: SPACE-ENTHUSIASTS at MIT-MC
Incidentally, the Sheffield novel is called THE WEB BETWEEN THE
WORLDS. It is perhaps not as dramatic as Clarke's (or maybe it
is); it is certainly more technically detailed.
It involves building a beanstalk.
------------------------------
Date: 13 December 1981 04:54-EST
From: Jerry E. Pournelle <POURNE MIT-MC AT>
Subject: Penthouse, Yes Sir!
To: Hans Moravec at CMU-10A
cc: SPACE at MIT-MC, Wedekind.ES at PARC-MAXC
Except that it's "in principle" not "in principal" I
can't think of much to disagree with. Eventually we have to
escape from the rocket equation. Why not begin working on it now?
------------------------------
Date: 13 December 1981 04:57-EST
From: Jerry E. Pournelle <POURNE MIT-MC AT>
Subject: Strong cables
To: FONER at MIT-AI
cc: SPACE at MIT-MC
One night out at Pajaro Dunes when we had nothing to do, Minsky
and I (mostly Minsky) worked out the strengths and mass of
cables to use a "King David" sling (centrifugal) to throw stuff
off the Moon. Lo!, it's easily within the strength of Kevlar.
You have to build a steel structure to give the mess rigidity,
but the actual tension is held by a Kevlar cable; thus if you
send up a lunar colony, Kevlar is a fairly important requirement
of what to take with you.
------------------------------
Date: 13 Dec 1981 03:11:06-PST
From: menlo70!sytek!zehntel!berry at Berkeley
To: sytek!menlo70!ucbvax!space@Berkeley
Subject: Space Elevator
The space elevator was the subject of quite a bit of recent writing, not the
least of which was the novel "The Fountains of Paradise" by Arthur C. Clark.
At about the same time that this book was published, another author/scientist
published another novel on the same subject. An extract from the novel, and an
article desciribing the system in more mathematical detail than is possible in
a novel appeared in Destinies, a paperback magazine (bookazine? magazook?)
formerly published by Ace. I am afraid I can remember neither the date of
the issue, nor the author's name, because my copy is still in one of the boxes
piled in what will soon (Klono willing) be my library. Perhaps Dr. Pournelle
can supply us the name/dates??
-Berry Kercheval
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End of SPACE Digest
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