Re:Space Elevators Are Possible
by grecy on Wednesday February 26, 2014 @01:44AM
(#7303390)
Would a satellite/tether collision damage the tether, or just destroy the satellite?
If it just destroys the satellite, I'm kind of tempted to say "who cares", because by then we will have other solutions, or satellites out past the counterweight, or we can easily launch more now that we have the fancy elevator, or whatever... but then we'd have the problem of an unimaginable amount of space junk orbiting the earth.
Re:Space Elevators Are Possible
by Tuna-Fish on Wednesday February 26, 2014 @02:46AM
(#7303571)
Everything in low earth orbit has 30MJ/kg worth of kinetic energy. TNT has 4.6MJ/kg worth of chemical energy. A rule of thumb: when the kinetic energy of things goes above the chemical energy of high explosives, you can assume that nothing survives.
If it just destroys the satellite, I'm kind of tempted to say "who cares", because by then we will have other solutions, or satellites out past the counterweight, or we can easily launch more now that we have the fancy elevator, or whatever... but then we'd have the problem of an unimaginable amount of space junk orbiting the earth.