2 ms·
The problem with a 150m slippage tolerance is that it means the horizontal dampers on the pylons near the end have to deal with movements of up to 150m, which i
by thedufer 13y ago
The problem with a 150m slippage tolerance is that it means the horizontal dampers on the pylons near the end have to deal with movements of up to 150m, which is significantly larger than the distance between pylons. Maybe that's feasible (seems unlikely, but I'm no engineer), but it's the kind of point that ought to be addressed explicitly.
- phreeza 13y agoI think the proposal says explicitly there are no longitudinal dampers on the pylons, only horizontal transverse, but thermal expansion shouldn't be a problem for those.
- saalweachter 13y agoIs that really the only problem? It seems to me that expecting hundreds of miles of pipe to be pushed back and forth hundreds of feet (albeit presumably slowly) puts a heck of a lot of stress on the self-same pipe. How is this that much different from building a side-ways space elevator? Even if it's easier to push sideways than up, it still adds up to quite a bit over hundreds of miles.