Space Elevator Between Planets

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Oli said:
What makes you think it'd be a corpse?
Lack of logic on your part maybe?
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If it takes 1 second to accelerate to one million MPH, then the passengers would be "liquidated." lol

Asguard said:
you would only be a corps is the accesseration and decelleration was to rapid. However actually travling at that speed is no problem, we do it on a daily basis
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This is true, the Earth is moving at something like 69,000 mph right? And the sun is moving around the galaxy core at some higher speed.

We need only implement supposed inertial dampening technology....
 
Diode-Man said:
If it takes 1 second to accelerate to one million MPH, then the passengers would be "liquidated." lol
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That would be why they AREN'T planning on 1 sec of acceleration wouldn't it?
Passenger-carrying mass drivers are being talked about with lengths in the tens of kilometres, and much-reduced acceleration.
Please learn something before spouting rubbish.
 
Oli said:
That would be why they AREN'T planning on 1 sec of acceleration wouldn't it?
Passenger-carrying mass drivers are being talked about with lengths in the tens of kilometres, and much-reduced acceleration.
Please learn something before spouting rubbish.
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Tens of km would never work. You will need to launch at about 10 km/sec to reach orbit. If you accelerate at 10Gs, which is pretty much the extreme limit of what a trained pilot with a G suit can handle, you would need a launch track 500 km .

You might be able to launch unmanned cargo into space with a track that was a few tens of km long (assuming you have some very study cargo), but it's probably not feasible for launching people.
 
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Tens of kms wouldn't work for a final speed of 1,000,000 mph - but nobody is actually planning on that speed: it isn't required.
I ignored that 1 million mph figure, because it was specious.
 
Oli said:
That would be why they AREN'T planning on 1 sec of acceleration wouldn't it?
Passenger-carrying mass drivers are being talked about with lengths in the tens of kilometres, and much-reduced acceleration.
Please learn something before spouting rubbish.
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I was referring to a rail gun passenger launch capsule....

Probably more sci-fi than else.
 
A mass-driver is a rail gun in general principle: they are both a form of linear accelerator.
Or vice-versa - a magnetic launch device.
But as with ANY device they are/ would be tailored to the required application.
 
Oli said:
Tens of kms wouldn't work for a final speed of 1,000,000 mph - but nobody is actually planning on that speed: it isn't required.
I ignored that 1 million mph figure, because it was specious.
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Did you actually read my post? Tens of km also wouldn't work for a final speed of 10,000 m/sec, which is the minimum speed for reaching orbit. You will need a track many thousands of km long for humans to have any hope of surviving the acceleration.
 
Er, most proposals for passenger-carrying mass divers I've seen were for moon-based applications.
~60 km at around 5g.
 
Oli said:
Er, most proposals for passenger-carrying mass divers I've seen were for moon-based applications.
~60 km at around 5g.
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That could work on the moon, where the gravity is so much lower. Also I made a mistake in my previous calculations, at 10G you would "only" need a track 500 km long to launch from earth. At 5G it would need to be 1000 km long. Not quite as bad as my first numbers, but still ridiculously long.
 
Nasor said:
That could work on the moon, where the gravity is so much lower. Also I made a mistake in my previous calculations, at 10G you would "only" need a track 500 km long to launch from earth. At 5G it would need to be 1000 km long. Not quite as bad as my first numbers, but still ridiculously long.
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Somebody'll propose it.
If they think they can make a profit :D
Actually, now you mention it... I have a vague memory that it was studied, at least semi-seriously.
I'll ransack my brain and see if I can remember where/ when and by who.
 
Oli said:
Somebody'll propose it.
If they think they can make a profit :D
Actually, now you mention it... I have a vague memory that it was studied, at least semi-seriously.
I'll ransack my brain and see if I can remember where/ when and by who.
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There have been many serious proposals for using this sort of things for launching cargo, I've never heard of it for people though. You can make the track smaller by making it circular so that its less of a chore to build (although for people this just means that you get crushed by angular acceleration rather than linear acceleration.)
 
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