lew@ihuxr.UUCP (10/26/83)
The Coriolis force presents a serious problem to the space elevator. In the geostationary reference frame, an object (e.g. elevator car) moving at speed v in the radial direction will experience the apparent Coriolis force, with magnitude 2*m*v*w in a westerly direction. Intuitively, as the car is hauled upwards it will tend to lag behind the faster moving geostationary points above it. With v=100 m/sec, the Coriolis acceleration is .014 m/sec2. This brings up some relatively complicated questions about the tension required to keep the lateral displacement in hand, but I see big problems here. Remember that if the elevator goes all the way to the Geostationary point, it must aquire a large orbital velocity. This is supplied by the reaction force to the Coriolis force. I read Clark's book on this some time ago, but I don't recall his having mentioned the Coriolis force. Lew Mammel, Jr. ihnp4!ihuxr!lew