JoSH@RUTGERS.ARPA (11/11/83)
From: JoSH <JoSH@RUTGERS.ARPA> Objects that were in orbits that were exact integral fractions (or multiples) of geosynch, and were not equatorial, would continue to miss the beanstalk if they missed it the first time. Perhaps this, on a smaller scale, explains quantum mechanics :-) ? --JoSH -------
REM%MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP (11/15/83)
From: Robert Elton Maas <REM @ MIT-MC> Aha, you're right, thanks for correcting me, and let me correct you slightly. If the period of the stalk and the random other satellite are commensurable, and if they don't collide within LCM(p1,p2) where p1 and p2 are the two periods, and if they remain locked in that same period and also remain locked in the same inclination, then they'll never collide. If the stalk is massive enough, perhaps it'll gravitationally-purturb all the other sattelites enough to lock them into such commensurable orbits, so all we have to do is calculate the present orbits of all satellites and debris currently existing and then plan the stalk to be in the right spot to miss everything long enough for everything to be purturbed into such locked commensurable orbits. Is any existing computer capable of that calculation? Imagine after we go extinct our stalk remains, and some alien civilization observing our planet from far enough away they can't see the stalk itself notices the strange resonance orbits of all the debris and wonders what unseen moonlet could possibly be purturbing everything into that strange pattern. (In case you missed my slight correction, I changed "multiple" to "commensurable" and changed "one period of lesser satellite" to "LCM of periods of stalk and lesser satellite", a generalization of your obsrvation.)