REM@IMSSS (Robert Elton Maas, this host known locally only) (01/17/86)
fair@ucbarpa.BERKELEY.EDU says this message was rejected by USENET because of problems with the message-id, so I'm resubmitting without any message-id. Arpanet members please ignore duplicate. Date: 1986 January 08 06:27:39 PST (=GMT-8hr) From: Robert Elton Maas <REM@imsss.stanford.edu> To: amdcad!cae780!weitek!mmm@ucbvax.berkeley.edu Cc: SPACE@mit-mc.arpa Subject: If you don't climb straight up it's a much longer trip to orbit MT: Date: 27 Dec 85 21:36:45 GMT MT: From: amdcad!cae780!weitek!mmm@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (Mark Thorson) MT: Subject: Re: Skyhooks, tethers, and kites. MT: Sender: usenet@ucbvax.berkeley.edu MT: To: space-incoming@s1-b.arpa MT: With all the interest in skyhooks and tethers, I'm inspired to ask "How MT: about a kite?" ... But the kite string would be tangent to the MT: earth, hence you could WALK into space (its only a hundred miles to LEO, MT: any good athlete should be able to make it in a few days). I beg to differ. It's 100 miles up, but going out tangentially (on one leg of a right triangle whose hypotenuse goes from the center of the Earth to the orbital point, with the right angle at the tether-launch point = north pole) it's about SQRT(4100**2 - 4000**2) = SQRT(810000) = 900 miles. Some athletes indeed may be capable of walking 900 miles with all the food and water and air they need on their back, but not many. Your statement above "YOU could walk ..." is probably untrue for any reader of this list except possibly Gene Salamin. (Hey Gene, care to respond, could you or anyone you know?) (Pardon tardy reply but IMSSS has been down almost continuously from Dec 30 thru Jan 06 and I'm just now catching up on replying to mail.) Disclaimer: I don't particularily like the recent trend toward putting long disclaimers at the end of each network message, but it seems to be the latest fad and I don't want to seem like some weirdo who doesn't follow trends, so I've decided to join the bandwagon. Watch this spot for more trivia.