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Nick Pateman
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« on: May 28, 2008, 06:22:34 AM » |
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I wanted to know what will be done about aircraft flying in the area of the cable. Obviously big airlines will stay clear of th giant cable but what about small aircraft, who are perhaps lost. One hit from a plane and surely there will be disasterous consequences.
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A_M_Swallow
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« Reply #1 on: May 28, 2008, 09:32:33 AM » |
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The ribbon is a small object (side to side) making it hard to hit. There are plans to paint it in warning colours and light up the ribbon at night. Being several hundred miles from land will help as well. The radar and air traffic control used to land helicopters can instruct the aircraft which direction to fly.
One thought since the ribbon is made of the strongest substance in the world any aircraft flying into the side will be cut in two like a knife through cheese.
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Andrew Swallow
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neil
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« Reply #2 on: May 29, 2008, 11:22:32 AM » |
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A_M_Swallow gave good answers. The vicinity will be a no fly zone. A small plane can make several close passes without hitting the ribbon. The plane can be shot down if it does not change course. The propulsion laser can possibly damage the aircraft. I think the anchor craft and it's back up will have propulsion lasers that can continiously deliver several megawatts to an airplane. Bright colors, will add weight to the ribbon, and won't help much, because of the small size of the ribbon, but visable laser holigrams might make the ribbon look bigger and brighter. Enough lighting to be effective attached to the ribbon, would interfer with the climber rollars and could easily have enough weight to halve the pay load of the ribbon, even with optimistic projections for CNT strength.
I agree the ribbon will cut though the plane like a knife, in some senarios, but the ribbon will also break in many senarios. Hopefully a heliocopter can catch the end escaping slowly into space, and reatatch it to the anchor ship. Neil
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A_M_Swallow
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« Reply #3 on: May 29, 2008, 12:22:32 PM » |
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The lights do not have to be attached to the ribbon they can be hung from a balloon.
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Andrew Swallow
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Frank
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« Reply #4 on: December 24, 2008, 07:47:01 AM » |
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Some thoughts about the danger from small airplanes...
The location of the SE is planned to be 1,000 miles from the nearest land. For a plane to reach the ribbon it would need a range of at least that far. Unless the plane is on a suicide mission it would need a range of at least twice as far as the SE is from land.
IIRC there is currently very little air or sea traffic in the area.
It is unlikely that anyone would accidentally fly into the ribbon but there will need to be a system to detect, warn, and deter planes just in case.
If there was a requirement that all stuff being taken to the liftport go by ship that would help keep the chance of a collision with the ribbon low.
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neil
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« Reply #5 on: September 27, 2009, 02:19:08 PM » |
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Hi A_M_Swallow: Another ship for each balloon? Sort of like barrage balloons at 15000 meters altitude? Yes lights are possible, but expensive. With six barrage balloons 5000 meters from the anchor ship in an equilateral hexagon, the plane is 6 times more likely to hit a balloon tether as the space elevator, unless flying at more than 15000 meters altitude. Closer than 5000 kilometers from the space elevator, the barrage balloons are likely to tangle with the space elevator in a rare wind storm. The 6 barrage balloons also give the space elevator some lightning protection from very rare lightning strikes. Storms move the barrage balloons much more than they move the space elevator due to the 20 plus tons of tension from above. Neil
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A_M_Swallow
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« Reply #6 on: September 27, 2009, 04:39:19 PM » |
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You would not need more than 3 balloons and can probably get away with one.
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Andrew Swallow
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Charles Ivie
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« Reply #7 on: December 11, 2009, 02:57:44 PM » |
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Considering the distance from land the only air travel likely in the area will be to and from the base station and they will be under tight navigation control. There are several options for illuminating the ribbon without significant weight penalty.
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