starship-design: Tidal forces

[TLG.van.der.Linden@tip.nl (Timothy van der Linden)]

>>>>Why can't it be a fixed frame? I don't see a problem about it.
>>>
>>>A fixed frame hudreds of thousands of miles across?  Aside from problems of
>>>structural strength, and lack of stiffness.  What planet would you convert
>>>into the framework?
>>
>>There are enough asteroids around to get the necessary materials from.
>>About lack of stiffness and structural strength, I guess that depends on the
>>way the array is constructed.
>
>Its still not practical to try to build a solid structure  the size of a
>jovian planet.  It wound be stiff, and will have a lot of trouble with
>tidal forces.  Its simpler and cheaper to just have a lose swarm of
>syncronized transmitter platforms that wander around as need be.

What tidal forces?, in orbit around the Sun the gravitational pull from
other planets is minimal.
(In fact the gravitational pull from the Sun on planets is already very low,
for Mercury the acceleration towards the Sun is only 0.004g)

Tim