Doesn't sound like simon's saying that, he's just pointing out that you WOULD definately need some engines on the
counterweight in order to keep station - it won't magically do it on its own. Besides, if you ever need to "dodge" a
piece of space junk, you'd need some thrusters on that counterweight anyway to nudge it over one way or the other.
Calculating efficiency in terms of cost per unit of weight versus rockets, well, that's far beyond my abilities even if I
were great at math (which I ain't
), as that requires some knowledge of economics and technology as well
Seems to me that one attractive thing about this stuff is that you can experiment with the concept in stages without
committing to the whole enchilada. For instance you could run a ribbon up to a high-altitude balloon to test weather
effects, oscillation etc. Then you could run a similarly sized ribbon (say, 20 miles long) between two satelites and have
them spin to test the ribbon's tensile strength and resistance to micrometeorites and the space environment.
Say, anyone know what geostationary altitude is for Mars?
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