3 ms·

I had the same questions! But again, this is where my knowledge fails me. For example, if you release C02, how far away from earth would you need to be for it t

I had the same questions! But again, this is where my knowledge fails me. For example, if you release C02, how far away from earth would you need to be for it to not get caught in Earth's gravity? Still, it's a fascinating idea.

wongarsu 3y ago
Anything within Earth's sphere of influence [1] (about 90000 km) will initially be in orbit around Earth. Unless you give it a kick that puts the highest point of the orbit further away from earth than that. Unless you shoot stuff away with railguns, the relevant question might be "at which point are solar winds a bigger factor than drag". I guess it's highly dependent on the exact gas. We lose Helium that way from earth (buoyancy brings it up, where solar winds catch it), so at some height it should work for CO2. It only really works for gases though, and then only for things that stay reasonably gaseous in orbit (low pressure and large temperature swings). For any solid or liquid you have to worry about it crashing into you on one of the orbits, and at orbital speeds tiny things can impact with a lot of energy. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere_of_influence_(astrodynamics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere_of_influence_(astrodyna...
cjbgkagh 3y ago
The more I look into it the less feasible it looks. My initial assumption is reflective of the peer comment that anything remotely heavy won’t have enough solar wind drag to get it out of Earths gravity well. Just to be in the solar wind alone you’d have to be outside the magnetosheath ~60K Km at its closest point, 35K Km is geostationary orbit which costs $10K kg to get to with falcon 9. And now you’d have to send up a whole falcon 9 in order to bring the non byproduct mass back to Earth which would defeat the purpose of venting CO2 to begin with. For those who don’t know it takes roughly the same delta V to bring things back down as it took to send them up.
DoreenMichele 3y ago
I don't know the answer to that. Though I'm wondering: If manufacturing were done on the moon, would it be safe and feasible to haul some wastes to the lunar equator during the cold of night and let it burn up when daytime temps naturally exceed the boiling point of water from solar power alone?

wongarsu 3y ago

Anything within Earth's sphere of influence [1] (about 90000 km) will initially be in orbit around Earth. Unless you give it a kick that puts the highest point of the orbit further away from earth than that. Unless you shoot stuff away with railguns, the relevant question might be "at which point are solar winds a bigger factor than drag". I guess it's highly dependent on the exact gas. We lose Helium that way from earth (buoyancy brings it up, where solar winds catch it), so at some height it should work for CO2. It only really works for gases though, and then only for things that stay reasonably gaseous in orbit (low pressure and large temperature swings). For any solid or liquid you have to worry about it crashing into you on one of the orbits, and at orbital speeds tiny things can impact with a lot of energy. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere_of_influence_(astrodynamics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere_of_influence_(astrodyna...

cjbgkagh 3y ago

The more I look into it the less feasible it looks. My initial assumption is reflective of the peer comment that anything remotely heavy won’t have enough solar wind drag to get it out of Earths gravity well. Just to be in the solar wind alone you’d have to be outside the magnetosheath ~60K Km at its closest point, 35K Km is geostationary orbit which costs $10K kg to get to with falcon 9. And now you’d have to send up a whole falcon 9 in order to bring the non byproduct mass back to Earth which would defeat the purpose of venting CO2 to begin with. For those who don’t know it takes roughly the same delta V to bring things back down as it took to send them up.

DoreenMichele 3y ago

I don't know the answer to that. Though I'm wondering: If manufacturing were done on the moon, would it be safe and feasible to haul some wastes to the lunar equator during the cold of night and let it burn up when daytime temps naturally exceed the boiling point of water from solar power alone?