I was working as a still photographer at WJLA-TV in DC and I was watching the network feed of the launch, capturing stills from the monitor to our electronic still storage system. I had made a series of captures as the launch progressed to "...Challenger, go at throttle up" then the unexpected fireball occurred. I'd already seen enough launches on TV to know that fireball meant that something was catastrophically wrong wrong wrong and immediately thought to myself "fly out of it... fly out of it... I expected the shuttle to do just that, gloriously emerge from the flames, the crew making a miraculous launch abort and return to launch site... but no. Debris continued on a ballistic trajectory then, its momentum spent, began to rain down while the SRBs traced those heinous arcs in uncontrolled flight. My boss, the station's Art Director was watching with me and asked what happened. I had to tell him it blew up.
I've been a sf fan over 35 years now- since I was 10, and since the late '70s Charles Sheffield's work has been a constant favorite. I first became aware of his stories reading Analog- he had several of his early novels serialized [Proteus Unbound, Between the Strokes of Night], and quite a few shorter length works [the individual Trader's World & McAndrew stories] in it during early years of his career
Having read almost all of his sf titles, I unequivocally state that Sheffield offered a rare blend of unique extrapolations of current science & technology with interesting & well-paced plots.
I was lucky enough to meet & talk with him at a number of east cost sf cons over the last few years, at which he was a regular panelist and reader. Impressive, to say the least.
If you like any kind of science-y sf, then I recommend you read any Sheffield you can get your mitts on!
Dr. Robert L. Forward in his 1995 book Indistinguishable from Magic, provides quite a treatise on the concept of Space Elevators or "Beanstalks" as the particular chapter is called. Forward has the scientific credentials to justify the idea with excerpts from existing studies to determine the physical and structural specifications of the tether.
Forward also describes a variation on the tether idea that he calls a Rotavator- and that I've seen elsewhere called a skyhook; a rotating cable 8500 KM long in orbit at 4250 KM that dips down into the atmosphere moving at such a rate to allow it to pick up cargo/passenger modules from the earth's surface and swing them up into orbit for release at the apex of the swing either to go into orbit or meet up with an orbiting terminal.
...Probably the most lucid explanation of the physics and material requirements for space elevators that you'll find in print...
Slashdot Mirror
I was working as a still photographer at WJLA-TV in DC and I was watching the network feed of the launch, capturing stills from the monitor to our electronic still storage system. I had made a series of captures as the launch progressed to "...Challenger, go at throttle up" then the unexpected fireball occurred. I'd already seen enough launches on TV to know that fireball meant that something was catastrophically wrong wrong wrong and immediately thought to myself "fly out of it... fly out of it... I expected the shuttle to do just that, gloriously emerge from the flames, the crew making a miraculous launch abort and return to launch site... but no. Debris continued on a ballistic trajectory then, its momentum spent, began to rain down while the SRBs traced those heinous arcs in uncontrolled flight. My boss, the station's Art Director was watching with me and asked what happened. I had to tell him it blew up.
I've been a sf fan over 35 years now- since I was 10, and since the late '70s Charles Sheffield's work has been a constant favorite. I first became aware of his stories reading Analog- he had several of his early novels serialized [Proteus Unbound, Between the Strokes of Night], and quite a few shorter length works [the individual Trader's World & McAndrew stories] in it during early years of his career
Having read almost all of his sf titles, I unequivocally state that Sheffield offered a rare blend of unique extrapolations of current science & technology with interesting & well-paced plots.
I was lucky enough to meet & talk with him at a number of east cost sf cons over the last few years, at which he was a regular panelist and reader. Impressive, to say the least. If you like any kind of science-y sf, then I recommend you read any Sheffield you can get your mitts on!
My sympathies to his family, friends and fans.
silent lurker
[in abnegation of my nick...]
Dr. Robert L. Forward in his 1995 book Indistinguishable from Magic, provides quite a treatise on the concept of Space Elevators or "Beanstalks" as the particular chapter is called.
Forward has the scientific credentials to justify the idea with excerpts from existing studies to determine the physical and structural specifications of the tether.
Forward also describes a variation on the tether idea that he calls a Rotavator- and that I've seen elsewhere called a skyhook; a rotating cable 8500 KM long in orbit at 4250 KM that dips down into the atmosphere moving at such a rate to allow it to pick up cargo/passenger modules from the earth's surface and swing them up into orbit for release at the apex of the swing either to go into orbit or meet up with an orbiting terminal.
...Probably the most lucid explanation of the physics and material requirements for space elevators that you'll find in print...
[silent once more]