Why won't space elevators short-circuit the ionosphere?

benburch

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Wed Mar-29-06 03:34 AM
Original message

Why won't space elevators short-circuit the ionosphere?

When we finally build a tether to geosynchronous orbit for access to space, how do they plan to keep the 250,000v potential between Earth and the Ionosphere from following it to ground?

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Skittles

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Wed Mar-29-06 03:59 AM
Response to Original message

1. ben, what do you ponder when you look at the stars?

Edited on Wed Mar-29-06 03:59 AM by Skittles

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benburch

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Wed Mar-29-06 09:07 AM
Response to Reply #1

5. How many of them there are!

400 billion stars in out galaxy... Trillions of galaxies (that we can see). And I wonder how many other critters are out there right now posting a message essentially just like this one.

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baby_mouse

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Wed Mar-29-06 05:47 AM
Response to Original message

2. welll...do rained-on wet mountains with tops above cloud cover

short circuit thunderstorms?

Interesting question...

Have you discovered a new power source, ben?

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benburch

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Wed Mar-29-06 09:10 AM
Response to Reply #2

6. Actually they do.

Mountaintops (when higher than surrounding terrain) draw lots of lightning.

Benjamin Franklin actually made motors that used part of the earth/sky charge potential.

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drm604

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Tue Apr-04-06 01:11 PM
Response to Reply #6

12. Benjamin Franklin

Do you have a cite for that? It sounds interesting.

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benburch

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Thu Apr-06-06 07:57 PM
Response to Reply #12

13. Here you go!

http://www.todaysengineer.org/2002/Aug/heritage.asp

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Hello_Kitty

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Wed Mar-29-06 06:01 AM
Response to Original message

3. Rubber mats?

:shrug:

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ixion

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Wed Mar-29-06 06:36 AM
Response to Original message

4. maybe by using a non-conductive composite material

for construction. That would do it, no? :shrug:

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benburch

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Wed Mar-29-06 09:11 AM
Response to Reply #4

7. As the cars shuttle up and down they would acquire a static charge.

And transport that...

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soothsayer

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Wed Mar-29-06 10:41 AM
Response to Reply #7

8. Not if they're covered in Bounce!

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Occulus

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Thu Mar-30-06 11:16 AM
Response to Reply #7

9. I wonder if that charge buildup could be used to power amenities on the

elevator. Something like- oh- a 'wet bar to space' or some such.

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Salviati

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Thu Mar-30-06 06:14 PM
Response to Original message

10. From what I understand...

The resistance of the cable is enough to make any current pretty small, plus the coupling between the ionosphere and the cable is pretty low, so it can't very efficently get current flowing in the ribbon anyway.

Here's a couple of sites that I've found:

http://www.isr.us/SEScienceFAQs.asp

http://www.liftport.com/

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NNadir

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Fri Mar-31-06 06:19 PM
Response to Original message

11. Giant floating resistors of course. n/t

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Solon

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Sat Apr-08-06 06:19 AM
Response to Original message

14. You can build one without it being "properly" grounded...

Also, one of the problems with building a space elevator is how you would power the elevator "cars", unfortunately, the proper material, nano-fibres, which have only recently been invented, are not conductive, and stringing copper wires or ceramic superconductors would make it too heavy that it would collapse, so maybe using the Ionsphere as a power source wouldn't be a bad idea. BTW, optimally, it would be built well beyond geosynchronous orbit, more like twice that, to give enough momentum to release space craft out into the Outer Solar System with no added energy needed.

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Orsino

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Sat Apr-22-06 09:14 AM
Response to Original message

15. Because the ionosphere will greet us as liberators.

I think that the ionosphere is in its last throes, if you will.

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