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posted by on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:28AM   Printer-friendly
from the but-why? dept.

Designers Ostap Rudakevych and Masayuki Sono have unveiled a design for a skyscraper that would hang from an orbiting asteroid:

Clouds Architecture Office has unveiled plans for a futuristic skyscraper dubbed the "Analemma Tower." The building would hover majestically above the ground because it would be attached -- wait for it -- to an actual asteroid, in space, that is forcibly put into orbit around the earth.

If that's not enough to digest, consider that your exact address in this pendulous pad could be anywhere on Earth. The tower will be suspended via high-strength cabling from an asteroid and placed in "eccentric geosynchronous orbit". In other words, it would be always moving -- residents and visitors would take a daily journey between the northern and southern hemispheres with a prolonged visit over a main "home" point like New York City or Dubai (it's always New York City or Dubai, isn't it?)

[...] Analemma Tower's designer Ostap Rudakevych told CNN that the tower could be made of durable and lightweight materials such as carbon fiber and aluminum. Advances in cable engineering would be needed to achieve the cable strength required to support the structure. Power would come from space based solar panels that have a constant exposure to sunlight. Water for the tower will be captured from clouds and rainwater and maintained in a semi-closed loop system.
As proposed the top of the tower sits at 32,000m and would be expected to reach speeds of 300mph as it travels through the sky.

Elysium 1.0?

Also at NBC and BGR.


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  • (Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday March 30 2017, @06:14AM (9 children)

    by anubi (2828) on Thursday March 30 2017, @06:14AM (#486354) Journal

    Even though it sounds really neat, I am a little concerned about hovering it over a populated area.

    Sword of Damocles kinda thing.

    A single point of failure, whether accidental or deliberate, along the cable would have devastating result.

    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by c0lo on Thursday March 30 2017, @07:14AM (8 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 30 2017, @07:14AM (#486363) Journal

    Even though it sounds really neat, I am a little concerned about hovering it over a populated area.

    Even if it wouldn't hover over a populated area, if the failure of the cable at distal end - close to the asteroid - the fall of the cable will cause massive destruction; the sudden loss of the asteroid counter-weight will transform the cable into a 32,000 to 50,000km long whip, lashing around the Earth circumference (40,030 km) at orbital speeds - towards the end, the whip will look the same way as meteorites blazing across the sky: on fire.

    I think Chelyabinsk or even Tunguska may appear as a pale joke in comparison with the full cable fall.
    Which, btw, brings the following question into attention: where this whole energy come from? Could it be, for instance, that this energy is equivalent with the total energy expenditure to build the cable in the first place?

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday March 30 2017, @08:53AM (1 child)

      by anubi (2828) on Thursday March 30 2017, @08:53AM (#486391) Journal

      Ouch!

      I wasn't even thinking of cable whiplash combined with the rotation of the Earth. Damn good point you brought up.

      All I saw right then was a replay of 9-11 involving some faction messing with the cable.

      Funny, I used to work a lot with cables in the oil industry, and a severed whiplashing cable was a major safety concern.

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
      • (Score: 2) by ragequit on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:03PM

        by ragequit (44) on Thursday March 30 2017, @05:03PM (#486591) Journal

        Didn't something similar to this happen in Red Mars? (the book)

        --
        The above views are fabricated for your reading pleasure.
    • (Score: 2) by jimtheowl on Thursday March 30 2017, @02:52PM (4 children)

      by jimtheowl (5929) on Thursday March 30 2017, @02:52PM (#486482)
      "Could it be, for instance, that this energy is equivalent with the total energy expenditure to build the cable in the first place?"

      If by 'building' the cable you mean the manufacturing, no. If you mean the energy used to put it into place, mostly.

      As lifting a bowling ball off the floor and dropping it, potential energy is stored and then turned back into kinetic energy. This ludicrous contraption is a bit more complex but that is essentially the idea.
      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday March 30 2017, @10:05PM (3 children)

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 30 2017, @10:05PM (#486773) Journal

        If by 'building' the cable you mean the manufacturing, no.

        Apologies, my wrong choice of words there.

        Though... it's not entirely false - as the cable burns (as in "combines with oxygen") due to the heat of atmospheric friction/impact, there will be some extra energy on top of the gravitational potential. But yeah, not the entire energy that went into the manufacturing it.

        The interesting point here is: "to manufacture and lift the cable cannot be lower than the gravitational potential. Given that you can calculate this potential energy, establish the minimal energy necessary to have the cable in place. Then express this energy in total energy consumption of the world/year" terms. It would be interesting to see this comparison, it sorta give an idea of the minimal cost to run this project.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
        • (Score: 2) by jimtheowl on Friday March 31 2017, @02:00PM (2 children)

          by jimtheowl (5929) on Friday March 31 2017, @02:00PM (#487078)
          You are correct in observing that there may be 'burning', but whether that translates into a mostly exothermic vs endothermic reaction depends on the materials. Also worth pointing out that even if there were no oxygen (or if the atmosphere was made of a noble gaz for that matter), the friction on re-entry would cause heat radiation and (and disintegration as in molecules being separated, not disappearing) which is not due to a chemical reaction but to the initial potential energy.

          I'm not sure why you would express this energy in 'world/year' term. There may be energy used to maintain the stability of the system (which is much more than the cable) over time, but as far as the initial energy required to put the system in place, that is it.
          • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday March 31 2017, @06:46PM (1 child)

            by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday March 31 2017, @06:46PM (#487235) Journal
            I'm not sure why you would express this energy in 'world/year' term.

            Because it gives an idea about the cost of building/raising the cable in terms similar to "libraries of Congress", "surface of Texas" or "Olympic swimming pools".
            Or how many years worth of world energy one needs to sacrifice to build a skyscraper hooked to the sky.
            Or how many years worth of world energy this would release over a day of falling back to Earth.

            --
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
            • (Score: 2) by jimtheowl on Sunday April 02 2017, @04:24AM

              by jimtheowl (5929) on Sunday April 02 2017, @04:24AM (#487819)
              Ok - thanks for the explanation.

              I do not tend to think in those terms myself because I do not see it as a constant, but I suppose it may provide an intuitive frame of reference.
    • (Score: 2) by WillR on Thursday March 30 2017, @03:29PM

      by WillR (2012) on Thursday March 30 2017, @03:29PM (#486512)
      And the asteroid (possibly with humans on board, if the cable end and solar power station need regular maintenance) will fly off with enough velocity to leave the solar system.

      If you haven't read Kim Stanley Robinson's Red/Blue/Green Mars trilogy, there's a great description of what would happen if a space elevator cable were to come crashing down...