Laws@SRI-AI.ARPA (11/03/83)
From: Ken Laws <Laws@SRI-AI.ARPA> I understand that orbiting debris would be a problem for the space elevator (and for anything else in orbit). I also understand that collisions could spew fragments that would themselves be hazardous. I don't understand, though, why such collisions would be frequent. I would expect the elevator to develop an orbital "shadow" swept free of debris, and that collisions would only occur with objects newly injected into this space. Are the orbital mechanics such that the elevator would continually intercept new debris trajectories? -- Ken Laws -------
LRC.Slocum@UTEXAS-20.ARPA (11/08/83)
From: Jonathan Slocum <LRC.Slocum@UTEXAS-20.ARPA> One of the bigger problems with space debris (re: a stalk/elevator) is that the thing will be moving at orbital velocity at only one point along its entire length. Even assuming everything else out there were also in an equatorial orbit, the collision velocities could be very high indeed. But, of course, hardly anything else IS in an equatorial orbit, so there is no possibility that the stalk/elevator could "sweep clean" its orbital path, except in the degenerate case: sooner or later, almost EVERYTHING would intersect its path. The few exceptions are easy enough to imagine. -------