Re: Re: [OT] Beanstalk anyone?

>From: "Alan and Carmel Brain" <aebrain@webone.com.au>

>The concept that I'm most interested in consists of unanchored
beanstalks.
>These rotate (due to tidal forces). They can be at virtually any
altitude.
>Provided you keep on putting a tadge more energy into them (by ferrying
>material into the gravity well) than you take out, their orbits won't
>decay.
>
>The best thing about them is that they can be made right now with
existing
>materials.

All of which is a good point and very interesting, but not germaine to
the 
original question I aksed, "What would happen if an ANCHORED Beanstalk's
end 
mass got UNtethered - it seems the correct answer would be, "depends."

3B^2

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