Building suspended from asteroid????

[DAllen]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook

Someone please tell me this is an Onion - like article.

Even in grade school we learned that at the very basics of orbital mechanics a building like this is near impossible. Can you say perigee and apogee? Can you say elliptical orbit?

I wonder how many other things we can find wrong with this plan...

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

It sounds like a variation on the "space elevator". Theoretically, it would possible to drop a cable down from a satellite in geostationary orbit and attach it to a point on the ground. The idea of the space elevator is that you could then run a kind of elevator up the cable to space. Or, you could stop the cable short of the ground and dangle something in the air. And maybe in concept, that thing could be a building. When I first heard about the "space elevator" concept in the 70's, the idea was considered impossible with the materials science of the time, because no material was strong enough to support its own weight for such a long length (30,000 miles of cable!), let alone carry another weight up and down the cable. But now, new materials like carbon fiber could be strong enough for a space elevator. But I seriously doubt there is anything strong enough to dangle a skyscraper of any size down from space!

 

[solid_fuel]

Well which is it? A comet or an asteroid? I got through the subtitle and the first paragraph and it seems like they believe that a comet and asteroid is the same thing

 

[DAllen]

Well which is it? A comet or an asteroid? I got through the subtitle and the first paragraph and it seems like they believe that a comet and asteroid is the same thing

I noticed that. Sort of demonstrates the journalistic quality of the article doesn't it?

So yeah, lets think about this a minute. First, I wonder just how circular an orbit can you get? As we all know from basic orbital mechanics bodies orbit on an ellipse which presents rather interesting issues for a suspended building. The ISS for example has a perigee of 401.1 km and a apogee of 408 according to the wiki. That's a difference of something around 22k feet - almost the height of Everest. So if this asteroid has a similar difference in orbital height that means it is going to bob up and down SEVERAL MILES IN ALTITUDE. That'll present some technical issues trying to get aboard eh?

 

[jlabrasca]

Well which is it? A comet or an asteroid? I got through the subtitle and the first paragraph and it seems like they believe that a comet and asteroid is the same thing

Centaurs

There are many things wrong with this idea, but the details are wonderfully daffy. Build it in Dubai, because they've built stupidly tall buildings very cheaply. But it won't be attached the surface of the earth, so it won't actually be built in any country -- so all of those underpaid guest workers will be dragged from Dubai into many other countries. Which country's labor laws will prevail on a constructions site that transits your airspace in a few hours?

I especially like that they plan a funerary facility at the uppermost level. Because what else would you put up there but a place from which to hurl corpses?

Popular Science snarking on the idea -- with diagrams of the path the tower over the earth and some analysis of the various physical and logistical issues with the concept.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

I think a lot of the more moronic ideas in the article may be due to the reporting, not whoever came up with the concept. I wouldn’t call this a “plan” so much as an inspirational concept. There are so many practical impossibilities, it’s not going to happen.

 

[soopirV]

I noticed that. Sort of demonstrates the journalistic quality of the article doesn't it?

So yeah, lets think about this a minute. First, I wonder just how circular an orbit can you get? As we all know from basic orbital mechanics bodies orbit on an ellipse which presents rather interesting issues for a suspended building. The ISS for example has a perigee of 401.1 km and a apogee of 408 according to the wiki. That's a difference of something around 22k feet - almost the height of Everest. So if this asteroid has a similar difference in orbital height that means it is going to bob up and down SEVERAL MILES IN ALTITUDE. That'll present some technical issues trying to get aboard eh?

You just have to be very quick getting into the lobby...

 

[DAllen]

You just have to be very quick getting into the lobby...

LOL

Well played

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

You just have to be very quick getting into the lobby...

If you find revolving doors a challenge, then this is not the building for you.

 

[Mushtang]

Another reason this idea could never work, the drag on the asteroid from pulling a huge building through the atmosphere would slow it down and it wouldn't stay in the same orbit. The building would scrape along the surface of the Earth which would then slow the comet (see what I did there?) down even more, eventually, and fairly quickly, the asteroid would crash into the ground.
The sky would be filled with dust and be dark for years and all the dinosaurs would die.

 

[Marc_G]

...the asteroid would crash into the ground.
The sky would be filled with dust and be dark for years and all the dinosaurs would die.

:y:

 

[LithosphereRocketry]

Another reason this idea could never work, the drag on the asteroid from pulling a huge building through the atmosphere would slow it down and it wouldn't stay in the same orbit. The building would scrape along the surface of the Earth which would then slow the comet (see what I did there?) down even more, eventually, and fairly quickly, the asteroid would crash into the ground.
The sky would be filled with dust and be dark for years and all the dinosaurs would die.

More likely the whole assembly would just rotate...

Even space elevators are pretty stupid if you actually do the math. For them to stay put they need to be 2x the radius of geostationary orbit. Let's assume a 1cm radius cable with around the density of typical plastics (I'll guess 1.2 g/cm^3). That's 377 g/m. Geostationary orbit is 35 786 000 m away, so that's around 27,000 tons of fiber. That's over 1000 Falcon Heavys if we trash every core or well over 3000 if we try to reuse them... Just my opinion, but I don't think it's gonna happen anytime soon.

 

[mpitfield]

Clearly you guys have no idea what you are talking about.

John Tracy has been using a space elevator to ride up from Tracy Island to Thunderbird 5 for decades. As far as I can tell he has been doing this almost daily, as I think he has a thing for EOS.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

Another reason this idea could never work, the drag on the asteroid from pulling a huge building through the atmosphere would slow it down and it wouldn't stay in the same orbit. The building would scrape along the surface of the Earth which would then slow the comet (see what I did there?) down even more, eventually, and fairly quickly, the asteroid would crash into the ground.
The sky would be filled with dust and be dark for years and all the dinosaurs would die.

The dinosaurs thought they were SOOOO smart, hanging a skyscraper from a comet.

 

[soopirV]

The dinosaurs thought they were SOOOO smart, hanging a skyscraper from a comet.

Well, now we know what officially did them in...hubris.

 

[Lugnut56]

Nobody's mentioned the parking issue the tenets will be facing.


[video]https://youtu.be/VLTWa1Ie9vo[/video]