Graphene-Fed Silkworms Produce a Super-Strong Silk That Conducts Electricity

Re:Graphene-Fed Silkworms Produce a Super-Strong Silk That C... by hwillis on Sunday December 18, 2016 @10:49PM (#13209401)

No, that doesn't work for anything less than a space elevator or the other devices I mentioned. A space elevator is tied down to the earth, and constantly trying to fly off into space. A skyhook is basically nothing more than a LEO satellite with a very, very long rope hanging off it. If you pull on the rope, you pull the satellite down since there is no centrifugal force besides the inertia keeping it in orbit.

If you make a very heavy counterweight, it just delays the inevitable pulling down, and its that much harder to get into orbit. There's no point.

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Re:Graphene-Fed Silkworms Produce a Super-Strong Silk That C... by WJW on Monday December 19, 2016 @06:16AM (#13210736)

While the energy imparted to the object being leunched is the same, you would be able to use high-ISP thrusters like ion engines to boost the counterweight back up. They can't be used lower down though, due to not having enough thrust for use in the atmosphere. This would have the advantage of raising the average ISP during the launch, thus having to use less propellant overall.

It might even be possible to use tether-based propulsion for the counterweight, which wouldn't need any propellant at all but push against the Earths' magnetic field.

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Re:Graphene-Fed Silkworms Produce a Super-Strong Silk That C... by vorotato on Wednesday December 21, 2016 @04:00PM (#13232577)

Landing on the moon also pulls it down, also landing on existing satellites. There is no special nature of ropes that "pulls down". Secondly there's no reason why we couldn't take a space object and use it as the very heavy counterweight.

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