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Re:Orion has splashed down off the coast of Baja, California by actionfromafar on Sunday December 11, 2022 @05:42PM (#33948394)
A space elevator for our own moon would be far more interesting to me. It could be built with known materials.
Re:Orion has splashed down off the coast of Baja, California by throwawaymaths on Sunday December 11, 2022 @06:27PM (#33948792)
Is that true? I thought getting a 28 day period on the moon is beyond the orbit of the moon itself.
Re:Orion has splashed down off the coast of Baja, California by actionfromafar on Sunday December 11, 2022 @08:07PM (#33949596)
I meant for going from the Moon surface to an orbit around the Moon, not reaching Earth.
Re:Orion has splashed down off the coast of Baja, California by throwawaymaths on Sunday December 11, 2022 @08:12PM (#33949640)
Yeah I looked up the moon proposals and fundamentally they have to go to L1/L2 points and they are not stationary on the surface or have to pivot around the poles. A tether that was lunostationary is impossible since it would have to cut through the earth
Re:Orion has splashed down off the coast of Baja, California by actionfromafar on Monday December 12, 2022 @03:12AM (#33952193)
The anchor point on the moon will be fixed. It's the counter weight at L1/L2 that will drift and will need some (small, according to Wikipedia) correction.
Re:Orion has splashed down off the coast of Baja, California by throwawaymaths on Monday December 12, 2022 @09:38AM (#33955047)
No. Stop and think about it. The moon rotates every 28 days with respect to L1/L2.
Re:Orion has splashed down off the coast of Baja, California by actionfromafar on Monday December 12, 2022 @12:28PM (#33957452)
I try! :-D

Isn't the moon tidally locked and that's why we never see the "far side" of the moon?

And the lagrange points are between us and the moon?

If so, I don't understand why the anchor on the moon can't be fixed.

Re:Orion has splashed down off the coast of Baja, California by Smaug123 on Monday December 12, 2022 @01:30PM (#33958264)
For what it's worth, I think you're right, although it's been a very long time since I did any mechanics. The tidal locking isn't completely perfect, so the elevator would probably have to be basically a spool of rope rather than an anchor; and the Moon's axis of rotation precesses every 18 years ish per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini%27s_laws, so again there would need to be quite a lot of flex in the elevator; but I don't see why it couldn't be done.