Opposing Magnets Query

[All Seeing Eye]

First of all, you didn't come up with the idea of orbital electricity generation, in fact Robert and I were just talking about it.

I didn't say I came up with the idea of orbital electricity generation (I truly cannot fathom where you possibly got that idea from), I said I came up with an idea to build a ring all around the Earth and I know you guys were talking about orbital electricity generation because I said "that reminds me".
I really don't care for your tone sir.

A small network of satellites with long tethers would work quite well, you certainly don't need a gigantic, expensive, orbital "ring" to do it.

You do if it has other uses such as being a space station, an orbital habitat to help ease planetary over crowding and a space vessel accelerator.

Your idea of a physical railroad that surrounds the entire earth makes absolutely no sense from an economic or energy efficiency point of view.

yes it does, it's powered by the ring it's attached to and it is capable of sending ships and payloads into the outer solar system far faster than any other mode of travel and you don't even have to carry much fuel. You'll only need fuel to get back.

You're going to spend all that time and money on a railroad that encircles the moon? The payload still has to reach an extremely high speed, how? You say it "lifts upwards", how? Energy, probably thousands of times more than it would require just to propel the comparably tiny payload into space by itself.

This is the moon we're talking about here, the gravity is minuscule and therefore perfect for this type of propulsion. It will be propelled via electromagnets powered by nuclear reactors, the fact it's not having to be kept in orbit also means it's a better option. the track will lift up like any other mechanism or machine would, by using motors.

When come up with an idea like this, think about what kind of practical advantages a device like this would present over, say, a traditional rocket or even some kind of magnetic launching system.

The advantages are immense. The speeds this type of track based accelerator could attain are limited only to the amount of power you feed it. If the space vessel with crew onboard were increased in speed steadily the G-forces would easily be tolerable and the vessel could reach such enormous speeds a trip to Mars could be achieved within mere weeks or days.

You can't just suddenly slingshot a space vessel with a crew onboard using a slingshot device, either the G-forces would be intolerable or the speed the vessel attains would be tiny . The Moon rail makes more sense.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Remember that as a consequence of Lenz's Law, a conductor moving through a magnetic field will eventually decelerate to rest relative to the field due to eddy currents. See, for example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxC-AEC0ROk

http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/education/tutorials/slideshows/eddycurrents/index.html

As a result, satellites that are intended to extract energy from the Earth's magnetic field would tend to deorbit rather more quickly than you might expect.

 

[Jadzia]

Remember that as a consequence of Lenz's Law, a conductor moving through a magnetic field will eventually decelerate to rest relative to the field due to eddy currents.

As a result, satellites that are intended to extract energy from the Earth's magnetic field would tend to deorbit rather more quickly than you might expect.

I'm sure Tachyon will approve of the conductor being tethered to the moon which will keep pulling it around.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Remember that as a consequence of Lenz's Law, a conductor moving through a magnetic field will eventually decelerate to rest relative to the field due to eddy currents.

As a result, satellites that are intended to extract energy from the Earth's magnetic field would tend to deorbit rather more quickly than you might expect.

I'm sure Tachyon will approve of the conductor being tethered to the moon which will keep pulling it around.

Now that's just ridiculous.

 

[Silvercrest]

Now that's just ridiculous.

There's a certain amount of irony connected with this statement.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Now that's just ridiculous.

There's a certain amount of irony connected with this statement.

I'm not quite following.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

I am.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

I am.

shhhh

 

[Trekker4747]

This is the moon we're talking about here, the gravity is minuscule

I wouldn't call 1/5th of Earth's gravity "minuscule."

 

[All Seeing Eye]

This is the moon we're talking about here, the gravity is minuscule

I wouldn't call 1/5th of Earth's gravity "minuscule."

Well I do.

 

[Trekker4747]

This is the moon we're talking about here, the gravity is minuscule

I wouldn't call 1/5th of Earth's gravity "minuscule."

Well I do.

Minuscule would imply that something is too small to be precieved or be noteworthy. The gravity on a large asteroid would be minuscule. It wouldn't be enough for you to really feel or notice it.

The gravity on the moon, while small, can be felt and it can effect you. That's why when the astronauts who jumped, threw pieces of rovers or golfed on the moon all those objects eventually fell back to the moon's ground.

Moon's gravity? Small but it can be precieved and noticably effects objects on the surface. That's not "minuscule."

 

[All Seeing Eye]

I wouldn't call 1/5th of Earth's gravity "minuscule."

Well I do.

Minuscule would imply that something is too small to be precieved or be noteworthy. The gravity on a large asteroid would be minuscule. It wouldn't be enough for you to really feel or notice it.

The gravity on the moon, while small, can be felt and it can effect you. That's why when the astronauts who jumped, threw pieces of rovers or golfed on the moon all those objects eventually fell back to the moon's ground.

Moon's gravity? Small but it can be precieved and noticably effects objects on the surface. That's not "miuscule."

Each to their own.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Why not use only one gianormous magnet and reflect the magnetism with an equally gianormous convex mirror placed.. I dunno.. maybe some 250,000 miles away? There'd have to be some kind of structure there to hold it though...

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Why not use only one gianormous magnet and reflect the magnetism with an equally gianormous convex mirror placed.. I dunno.. maybe some 250,000 miles away? There'd have to be some kind of structure there to hold it though...

Do not mock the greatest scientific mind of our age.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Does Stephen Hawking post here?

 

[Jadzia]

Hawking is more celebrity than anything. Within the scientific community, he's thought of as being at the bottom of the elite. He serves the role of a public figure for science.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Hawking is more celebrity than anything. Within the scientific community, he's thought of as being at the bottom of the elite. He serves the role of a public figure for science.

When you consider his physical disability, he's done some exceptional work. He's also a good role model for people with such disabilities, and an excellent populariser for Physics -- even if you don't agree with his theoretical outlook.

 

[Jadzia]

When you consider his physical disability, he's done some exceptional work.

I don't dispute that, and I don't want to sound cold hearted here, but it is a reality that the general public do tend to exaggerate the scientific value of his work, because of his disability, his books, and his celebrity image.

He's also a good role model for people with such disabilities, and an excellent populariser for Physics

I agree.

 

[Kaziarl]

I know its a bump. But I'm actually kind of curious if Tachy tested is stationary magnet thingy.

 

[Australis]

Tachy, or yamtacky as he is known... elsewhere on the board, never tests anything. They're thought experiments... without a lot of thought going into them.