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I couldn't help but to notice that in every drawing of this thing, "Support Cables" are shown beneath this gigantic floating structure, and they apparently keep
by RIMR 8y ago
I couldn't help but to notice that in every drawing of this thing, "Support Cables" are shown beneath this gigantic floating structure, and they apparently keep it in the sky.
I may not know too much about spaceflight, but I do know that gravity tends to pull downward, towards the earth. I don't see cables doing a good job of suspending these things in the air when they are constructed beneath the structures...
- chriswarbo 8y agoThe cables don't keep it up, they're like guide wires on radio masts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_masts_and_towers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_masts_and_towers The "support" comes from the momentum of the moving parts within the cable.
- RIMR 8y agoOh, so it's just one mechanical failure away from crashing down to Earth...
- chriswarbo 8y agoIt depends what sort of failure. Many sorts of failure would not be a problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundancy_(engineering) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundancy_(engineering)