Aerovator, Angel fleet, Polywell

[ciphergoth]

Ideas that are currently entertaining me:

• The Aerovator: a spinning wing 2,000km long whose tips rise 100km up and travel at 8 km/s which unlike the Space Elevator can be built (just) with today's materials.
• The Angel fleet: Counteracting global warming with a fleet of 16 trillon solar shades in space between the Earth and the Sun (we can use the Aerovator to put them up)
• Polywell fusion which if it turned out to be possible would save the world - plus we can power the Aerovator with it.

Comments

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

The wing spins about once every thirteen minutes...

[akicif.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. 13 minutes to move the tip approximately 6300km is going to spin off quite a lot of fast-moving air: it's about 24x the speed of sound at sea level.

Also, 240 tonnes in 1000km is 240 kg/km or 240g/m - at a specific gravity of 1, it would be well under an inch across, so we're talking quite a thin piece of material.

Naw, sorry. it's either bullshit or a spoof.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

But the tip is at 100km, where the air is so thin that it doesn't even count as being in the atmosphere.

Yes, I think it's meant to be very thin for much of its length.

It may well be bullshit, but it's not a spoof - the guy who named it has put a lot of work into it...