In reply to Jed Rothwell's message of Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:56:41 -0500: Hi, [snip]
I think orbiting debris would destroy the cable. >One of the many advantages to building a space elevator would be that >you could use it to clean up space garbage. At present, plans call >for putting the base of the elevator on a ship to move it out of the >way of orbital garbage. I think that is the wrong approach. They >should build multiple threads and use one (perhaps a thin, light >weight one) to lift a small special purpose car to the band of space >with orbiting garbage it in. They should use this car to either >capture the debris or knock it at an angle down to earth. > >The band of space with orbital debris is only a fraction of the total >distance up to geosynchronous orbit. The debris is found from 500 km >to 1700 km (Low Earth Orbit - LEO). Below 500 km friction from the >atmosphere brings the stuff down. Most of the space elevator track >would be in no danger of being hit by debris. So we only need to >clean up this band. > >The elevator threads now being designed will survive impact and >damage from small pieces of debris, but I think a long-term cleanup >effort is called for. > >See Edwards and Westling, "The Space Elevator" 2003. (The idea of >using the elevator to clean up the debris is mine. I have not read it >elsewhere.) > >- Jed Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/Project.html
