GeSp1500

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Number: 1500 Name: RELEASING SPIN ENERGY

Address: J.E.D.CLINE1 Date: 901229

Approximate # of bytes: 3780

Number of Accesses: 7 Library: 3

Description:

This file proposes that the orbital velocity

portion of a sattelite be supplied

by the release of the kinetic energy of a

tethered pair of rapidly spinning masses

carried to orbital altitude by conventional means

Keywords: spin,

sattelite,spinningring,transportation,propulsion,tether,ring

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ORBITAL DELTA-VEE STORED AS SPIN KINETIC ENERGY

by J. E. D. Cline Dec. 29, 1990 Canoga Park, California

It may be possible to greatly reduce launch vehicle

propulsion system & fuel requirements by storing the

delta-vee energy required for orbital velocity in the form

of kinetic energy of a splittable spinning ring pair of

sattelites.

Consider a situation where a ring of material is sitting

motionless some 90 miles over some point on the earth, the

circumference of the ring spinning around at a speed equal

to the orbital velocity at that altitude, about 19,000

mph...it is interesting to contemplate that here we have an

object which has all of its component parts moving at

orbital velocity yet is actually not in orbit. This offers a

way to significantly reduce the fuel requirements to launch

certain kinds of sattelites. If the spinning ring were

lifted from the earth's surface vertically to an orbital

altitude, and then split into equal parts, each part would

suddenly be in orbit due to their tangential velocities

being converted into linear velocity.

To put an object into earth orbit, starting at the

earth's surface, one has to add energy to it several ways:

a) the energy required to lift it to the orbital altitude,

say 90 miles up; b) the energy required to push aside some

15 lbs of air per square inch of frontal crossection; and c)

the energy required to accellerate the object by the 19,000

mph required to stay up there in orbit. This last item "c"

perhaps could be stored as kinetic energy of the spinning

ring, instead of as chemical propulsion fuel energy.

Thus this idea suggests a way to elliminate the need

for the fuel to accellerate the object by 19,000 mph. This

energy is stored in the form of kinetic energy in the

spinning ring, spun up electrically on the ground before

launch, and released by the splitting of the spinning ring

when lifted by the rocket to a vertical altitude of 90 miles

or so. Since fuel is needed to lift the fuel used to

accelerate a sattelite to orbital velocity, a large savings

in fuel and engine requirements would result. Some of the

savings would be offset by the toroidal vacuum housing and

the magnetic suspension system. But it appears that a

splitable pair of spinning sattelites, lifted within a

shroud aboard a conventional launch vehicle, could store all

or part of their orbital velocity energy requirements in

the form of their spinning kinetic energy. (The retrograde

sattelite half of the split sponning ring could be a dummy

mass headed for re-entry.) The functional sattelite, already

lifted by conventional rocket means to an orbital altitude,

is released from its balancing mass at precisely the instant

required that it be inserted in the desired orbital

direction, thus attaining orbital velocity. The sattelite

would have to be built to withstand the enormous gees while

being part of the spinning pair of masses, as well as the

sudden shock of instantly going from this great

accelleration to free-fall at the moment of release.

An Excalator Hi page titled GeSp1500 by J E D Cline started on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 5:20:40 PM US/Pacific

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