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Re: starship-design: Tidal forces



At 12:57 PM 11/5/96, Timothy van der Linden wrote:
>>>>>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


Tidal forces varry acording to size.  Given a structure a dozen times the
size of earth (and extrenmly unlikelt situation) it would have larger tidal
force.  Certainly enough to keep it edge on to the sun.

Kelly


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Kelly Starks                    Phone: (219) 429-7066    Fax: (219) 429-6859
Sr. Systems Engineer                                     Mail Stop: 10-39
Hughes defense Communications
1010 Production Road, Fort Wayne, IN 46808-4106
Email:  kgstar@most.fw.hac.com
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