"The tech" is actually pretty widespread. It's just putting weights at the end of lines and spinning them. A lot of satellites will be spun up for stablity, fired into higher orbits, and then de-spun using weights on lines that extend like this and slow the rotation rate like a skater extending their arms to slow a spin.
I think it's a great, great idea to build it, just put it somewhere else to test it. It's not designed for LEO anyway, and as electrified tether experiments have shown, the Earth's magnetic field can really screw with a vehicle like this even if there were no satellites for it to endanger.
True, but it won't rotate edge-on without a stablization system that can pitch a spun-out array of wires once every orbit, at a variable rate (since in a non-circular orbit the velocity will change radically depending on the position in orbit at a given moment). It's meant to be a solar sail, so it will be oriented to the sun regardless of orbital position. Even if it were edge-on, it would still be 10 miles across. And even if the array consists of thin wires, anything this size can take out satellites, and the fragments can take out other satellites. Ironically, the closer it is to edge-on, the less likely it is that a satellite or space junk component will be able to slip between the wires.
Older ABM systems used arrays that unfurled like this to increase the likelihood of taking out the targeted warhead or satellite. Just because the intention of this array is different doesn't mean the result would not be the same.
So it's a 10 mile across array in an orbit that crosses the altitude of most other satellites, and it crosses the path of the bulk of those satellites at the low point in its orbit when it's moving the fastest. Um. NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG, COULD IT???
They should put it at the Earth-Moon L4 or L5 liberation point instead - no traffic, ample unobstructed solar wind most of the month, and close communications with Earth. That's where a responsible group would put it.
Slashdot Mirror
"The tech" is actually pretty widespread. It's just putting weights at the end of lines and spinning them. A lot of satellites will be spun up for stablity, fired into higher orbits, and then de-spun using weights on lines that extend like this and slow the rotation rate like a skater extending their arms to slow a spin. I think it's a great, great idea to build it, just put it somewhere else to test it. It's not designed for LEO anyway, and as electrified tether experiments have shown, the Earth's magnetic field can really screw with a vehicle like this even if there were no satellites for it to endanger.
True, but it won't rotate edge-on without a stablization system that can pitch a spun-out array of wires once every orbit, at a variable rate (since in a non-circular orbit the velocity will change radically depending on the position in orbit at a given moment). It's meant to be a solar sail, so it will be oriented to the sun regardless of orbital position. Even if it were edge-on, it would still be 10 miles across. And even if the array consists of thin wires, anything this size can take out satellites, and the fragments can take out other satellites. Ironically, the closer it is to edge-on, the less likely it is that a satellite or space junk component will be able to slip between the wires. Older ABM systems used arrays that unfurled like this to increase the likelihood of taking out the targeted warhead or satellite. Just because the intention of this array is different doesn't mean the result would not be the same.
So it's a 10 mile across array in an orbit that crosses the altitude of most other satellites, and it crosses the path of the bulk of those satellites at the low point in its orbit when it's moving the fastest. Um. NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG, COULD IT??? They should put it at the Earth-Moon L4 or L5 liberation point instead - no traffic, ample unobstructed solar wind most of the month, and close communications with Earth. That's where a responsible group would put it.