GeSp5711

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Number: 5711 Name: 9TOGO

Address: J.E.D.CLINE1 Date: 940921

Approximate # of bytes: 53765

Number of Accesses: 2 Library: 3

Description:

Creating, developing, building and maintaining kinetically-

supporcted Earthsurface-orbital altitude bridging structures,

is a proposed key to building a nearly self-sufficient ring

of space habitats in orbit around this planet. Thus the

unique lifeforms developed on Earth can be born into the vastly

greater resources of the solar system. Includes: reason to do

it; supportive and destructive energies to such a project;

the path to and through this space scenario; technical

principles of kinetic structures; life in Clarke Belt City.

Keywords: KESTS,SPACE,HABITAT,RING,MOON,RESOURCES,BRIDGES,CIVILIZATION

---------------------------------

. 9togo: RING TRACKS TO RING COUNTRY Corporation

by James Edward David Cline SSN [removed] Canoga Park, CA USA

By building a nearly self-sufficient ring of space habitats in orbit

around this planet, the unique lifeforms developed on Earth can be

born into the vastly greater resources of the solar system. Creating,

developing, building and maintaining kinetically-supported form of

bridging strucures, connecting the Earth surface ecosystem and the

ring of space habitats, is the key massive transportation system link

for this proposed scenario.

This document is divided up into several sections, each to address a

different kind of personal interest of readers. Select those which

you like, and skip the rest.

1. WHY MOVE EARTH LIVING SYSTEMS INTO SPACE IN A BIG WAY?

2. WHAT ARE SUPPORTIVE ENERGIES FOR SUCH A PROJECT?

3. WHAT ARE DESTRUCTIVE ENERGIES FOR SUCH A PROJECT?

4. A LOOK AT THE PATH WHICH LED TO THE PROPOSED SPACE SCENARIO

5. WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE NECESSARY TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM?

6. TECHNICAL PRINCIPLES: KINETIC STRUCTURES IN GENERAL

7. TECHNICAL PRINCIPLES: KINETIC STRUCTURES BRIDGING SURFACE TO ORBIT

8. STEP-BY-STEP SCENARIOS LINKING TODAY'S REALITY TO CLARKE BELT CITY

9. LIFE IN ORBITAL RING COUNTRY: CLARKE BELT CITY

10. CONCLUDING

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1. WHY MOVE EARTH LIVING SYSTEMS INTO SPACE IN A BIG WAY?

First we need a hypothetical belief that it can be done, can be

achieved, and done well. That belief will lift us up out of appearant

dead-end tracks along the way, energizing us with a reminder of the

whole picture, the map. Yes, we CAN get there from here.

Next, a quick reminder of why we need to do it. Like humanity

eliminating forever one species of earth lifeforms every week or so,

mostly in the rainforests being slashed and burned for farmland, then

exhaused to wasteland. Add to the list that the arid wastelands of

the entire world are collectively expanding at the rate of about 40

square miles per day. The Sahara desert once was a well-watered

savannah. We are burning up many billions of dollars of fossil fuel

petrochemicals every year, and replacing none of it. Worldwide we

pile up one billion tons of garbage per year, putting it somewhere.

OK, that is enough thinking about this; let's not get down in the

dumps with fascination about such things. Solutions are at hand,

harmonious solutions. Believe.

The idealized motivation for creation of this space project is to

provide a means for allowing a continued expansion of human

civilization on a massive scale, while enabling the Earth surface

ecosystem to be brought back into its natural functional balance. In

that spirit, the 6 billion current Earth surface human population are

defined as owner-employees of a corporation to define, design,

develop, build, operate, and maintain the ring tracks, ring country,

and restored earthsurface balanced ecosystem. (This task originally

was called "KESTS to GEO Habitat Ring".)

With a sufficient transportation link between Earth surface and these

rings of shielded space habitats, the main human civilizations can

relocate to where their burgeoning population will not damage the

surface ecosystem further, and allow the Earth surface biosphere to be

restored to her natural balance. A proposed technology of "kinetic

structures" would provide the sufficient transportation link between

the earthsurface ecosystem and the vast ring of space habitats.

Civilization has been experiencing great success, and many believe the

success is too great, the population is overwhelming the resource

base. An easy example is the cheap & fast food hamburger, which was

produced in South America and flown in by the millions; and for which

each 1/4 pound burger's meat, it cost the life of 55 square feet of

Amazon rainforest including a 70 foot tall tree and all the creatures

big and small who lived upon it, monkeys, birds insects, other plants

...all gone in a razing fire which paved the way for its conversion

through growing grain ultimately producing a mere 1/4 pound hamburger

and 55 square feet of infertile wasteland in a year. Wisdom does not

seem to be applied adequately in that conversion process. And similar

lacks of wisdom appears typical of the processes going on right here

in America, formerly the land of the brave and home of the free. Ranks

of environmental activists declare Population Control is the answer to

increasing numbers of humans on planet Earth.

"Population Control" is to take the forms of fertility control, death

accelleration, massive reproductive harassment and/or migration.

Nature will use the first, second and third processes if humanity does

not consciously and wisely take control, it is said. Nature will

provide vastly increassed forms of disease, starvation, and

reproductive rivalry. Plague, famine, toxicity, fertility neutering,

reproductive harrassment, war, resource depletion ... will surely take

control if technology does not provide real options.

This has often happened before. No doubt when the first cave man

family outgrew the cave, similar concepts were felt, expressed and

acted upon. However, the ones who were cast out of (or escaped from)

their cave home went on to build their own "artificial caves", vastly

mtre of them than nature could provide, a billion of them by now

around the world, our homes.

"uigration" is an alternative option which technology has some

potential for providing humanity, right now. Technology is in sight

of a means for transporting the vast majority of humanity to space in

close orbit of Earth. From there the door to the vast resources of

your solar system await the spark of life to be created of it.

*********************************************************************

2. WHAT ARE SUPPORTIVE ENERGIES FOR SUCH A PROJECT?

By increasing our mobility, we increase our access to our resources.

Increasing access to resources increases the potential standard of

living, which increases life satisfaction potential. This document

proposes development of a transportation technology which has the

potential for increasing our mobility enormously, thus potentially

increasing our standard of living.

The creative energy for this project is to come from a population of

newly functionally balanced human individuals, each to have the

opportunity to be restored to full balanced functionality through the

body/mind integration processes already well developed, typified by

the Educational Kinesiology created by Dr. Paul and Gail Dennison;

and psycho-sensory integrative healing music and sounds typified by

those recorded by Dr. Jeffrey Thompson's Brain-Mind Research

productions which integrate sounds of sea mammals in the ocean,

children, and the electromagnet sounds produced by planetary objects

interacting with the solar wind as picked up by the Voyager

spacecraft; and the accellerated learning techniques typified by Zygon

Corporation's learning machine technology. Human functionality has

been found to be greatly improved through a mere teaspoon of

nutritional extract of Amazon rainforest origin, which may

additionally make the rainforest more valuable alive than destroyed to

make cheap hamburgers; these nutritional extracts are typified by

products of the Rainforest BioEnergetics Corporation; no doubt many

new pharmaceuticals will be derived through refinement of these

nutrients gathered and used by the indigenous peoples in the Amazon

rainforest for centuries. Also, since the creative energy of human

individuals is strongly correllated with their sexual energy source,

another enabling technology is the new field of electromedicine which

is typified by the simple devices which immobilize the HIV agent

within the human body through non-invasive induction of weak 100 uA

currents in the saline bloodstream and lymph nodes, invented by Dr.

Robert Beck (a biophysicist), thus allowing the universal return of

the natural uniquely human sexual loving between man and woman

everywhere, thus stimulating and releasing the currently-supressed

creative energies for use in creating the subject "Ring Tracks to Ring

Country" Corporation.

Does technology have the responsibility for creating options for

humanity's survival and well-being? Or does technology's role end with

just creating that which probably will make an adequate profit and for

which investors can be found?

*********************************************************************

3. WHAT ARE DESTRUCTIVE ENERGIES FOR SUCH A PROJECT?

This task for technology would be incredibly expensive, frightfully

risky, and probably thankless. The only benefitors of the success of

this task would be the future humanity and the vast interlinked life

web of the Earth's ecosystem. None of these potential benefitors are

able or present to vote on the cost, the risk, the thankless

challenges. The productive attention of corporate power struggles,

both internal and external, is not likely to jump on this bandwagon

like it did for the Apollo Progect, or the building of the Panama

Canal. This project is too big.

It is easy for civilized people to ignore the task, and dull

themselves with television fantasies and fastfoods, look the other way

while the disastor is creeping up so slowly before it strikes,

mercillessly castrating and/or outright killing until the excess

population (and more) is gone. History repeats for those who have not

learned its lessons, those who have not gone on to create better

options and take those options.

(It is easier for me, too, to bury my head in the television, instead

of struggling to get people to take unfamiliar paths...there are a lot

more of those people than me, they don't like people rocking the boat,

and they expertly know how to harrass their "opponents". So I write

this document, offer it through the computer network, and then will

sit back and say that I did my part of the job, and if this option for

humanity does not get created, somebody else dropped the ball, not

me. I am really tired of getting ignored by engineering, belittled by

the space activists to whom I have reached out to for decades, and

being ridden daily by the mischievious half-informed Luddites with

their electroacoustical abuse. If I cannot even get a woman to sleep

with me, I surely cannot get a planetfull of people to get up and

shoulder this task. However, I can paint a picture and wave it at

them, as a hobby.

I am offering the following picture of a promising option which

technology could offer humanity, however. Take it or leave it. In

offering it to technology, it is technology's "ball" now, and good

luck. Of course, I desire to help more, given some encouragement, I am

still available ... however, the past shows no reason to expect that,

only receive more harrassment, more intrusions into my tiny

earthquake-damaged bachelor's apartment to pilfer my files & other

things, for daring to suggest rocking the boat.)

*********************************************************************

4. WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE NECESSARY TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM?

Some rough parameters of the transportation system can be formed

now:

PAYLOAD CAPACITY, BILLIONS OF POUNDS:

For starters, it must be able to move the mass of about 6 billion

people, or 9 E 11 pounds mass; if their average belongings were 10

times the mass of the person, the belongings to move would be 9 E 12

pounds, or say 1E13 pounds overall. Double this to include the

portion of hydrocarbon resources not obtainable from the lunar

surface. The long-term transportation capacity would be a small

fraction of this initial capacity. Electric rail systems are far more

likely to be able to completely do this, as compared with individual

reaction-engine chemically-fueled freightors, typified by the

American Saturn-5 and the Russian Energia.

SAFE AND HIGHLY RELIABLE:

It must be reliable enough to maintain indefinite operation, possibly

for a century or two. Since the kinetic structures have little or no

components which are in moving mechanical contact, extreme

reliability is possible. Offsetting this might be certain natural

disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and possibly deranged

sabateurs, which might down an occasional transportation loop. Like

aircraft, they will need routine inspection, maintenance, periodic

overhaul, retirement of obsolete versions and replacement with new

models when appropriate.

MUST BE NON-POLLUTING OF THE SURFACE BIOSPHERE:

It must not significantly pollute the Earthsurface biosphere during

the transportation process. Using an electricly powered transportaion

system with power which is ultimately derived from space-based

solar-electric powerplants, this requirement would be met.

Offsetting this in part would be the pollution/damage caused if and

when any transportation loop failed and crashed to earth, analogous

to an aircraft crash, only bigger. Compared to reaction-engine

alternatives, an electrically powered transportaion system would

create insignificant environmental pollution.

MUST BE CAPABLE OF BEING BUILT QUICKLY ENOUGH:

It must be up and running quickly enough so that people can be

assured that they can back off from the current massive rate of

environmental destruction, for example to stop the current

destruction of the rainforests worldwide. Given the promise of a good

home in space within, say, 10 or 15 years, perhaps people can endure

some extra hardships for that long, and preserve the genetically

diverse ecosystem while continuing a reasonable rate of population

increase during that time period. To create such a radically new

massive transportation system in just 8 or 10 years will require a

new kind of advanced effective workforce. Thus the need for the

newly-available processes and tools for fully functional balanced

human well-being which were metioned early in this document, such as

kinesiological brain-mind balancing, brain-stimulating acoustic

learning machines, rainforest botanical-derived super nutritional

extracts, and electromedicine health restoration equipment...all of

which exist now already, and are continuing to improve through

further research & development. These human improvement processes

need to be adapted and expanded to boost enough people out of the

"couch potato" mode of existence, into an enthusiastic full balanced

functionality, so as to be able to get this enormous transportation

system up and running soon enough.

CARRYING LIVE PAYLOAD:

It must be able to transport humans and all other size lifeforms all

the way from earthsurface to the orbital location of the habitat

rings. Shielding needs to be provided through the Van Allen radiation

belts, and other radiation enroute the habitat rings orbit. The

habitat rings themselves will be shielded by the surrounding raw

materials processing slag, and by added mass of non-recyclable

materials generated by the life processes inside the habitats.

Besides carrying human families, the transportation system must

carry herds of cattle, flocks of chickens, giraffes, elephants,

pods of dolphins, whales and adult citrus trees, for example, each

shielded adequately from environmental stress during the

transportation process. Elecric rail systems could have the capacity

to carry large and diverse lifeforms.

CARRYING INANIMATE PAYLOAD:

It must be able to carry all the large structural components for the

first complete habitats, until the lunar materials transportation

and fabrication system is adequately up and running. This might mean

building habitats for, say, 2 million people in 5 years directly from

Earth resource materials hauled up the transportation loops, prior to

the start of robotic fabrication of the remainder to the habitat

structures from lunar resource materials. Electric rail systems could

carry large structural components, and transport large volumes of

liquids.

*********************************************************************

5. A LOOK AT THE PATH WHICH LED TO THIS SPACE SCENARIO

The promise of the exploration of space is that of the adventure of

exploration of unknown places, the income of material resources needed

by civilization, the discard of toxic radioactive wastes into the sun,

the receipt of energy to power civilization's electrical power grids

without pollution or waste of precious petrochemical feedstocks, the

planting of separate niches for life, and that of the relief of the

burden of mankind's civilization upon Mother earth's ecosystem.

Many of these are survival issues, but none of them as

attention-getting as the survival issues when a then-hostile nation

put nuclear missles on neighboring Cuba's soil. Then we nervously

looked at the Moon, along with the same hostile nation's increasing

space capability, and, putting the two together, feared the moon might

be used as another launch platform for nuclear missles at us. The

PARADE Sunday newspaper supplement's cover pictured such a missle

site, complete with domed personnel quarters, clearly impressing the

majority of us. We initiated the Apollo space program to put our

people on the Moon.

However, after some spetacular successes in landing our men on the

moon's surface, we realized that the rival nation was not also doing

so, along with the feared missles like in Cuba. So the last several

Apollo launches were scrapped, and the newspapers reported the only

thing of interest found on the moon was the age of its rocks, and so

the general public lost interest in the Moon...its threat now removed.

.sThe Apollo program had been proclaimed a peaceful scientific effort,

even stating on the first spacecraft lander a plaque that said we came

in peace for all mankind. So much data actually was obtained which yet

reposes as knowledge for using the moon's resources to expand

civilization beyond the earth surface ecosystem. We found that there

is much oxygen, aluminum, iron, titanium, silicon and other raw

materials there, and we found we can live and do useful work there,

and make explorations on the surface of the moon, given adequate

preparation for the trip.

The Moon itself was not thought to be a satisfactory place to build

nnw cities, because it has a long 14 day-long period of darkness in

which solar power would be unavailable, and that the gravity was fixed

at 1/6 of earth's gravity, not enough to sustain our earthly bodies'

strength. Also, any finished products made there for use on the Earth

surface, would have to be lifted out of the Moon's gravitational well

before decending to earth surface, taking a lot of energy, especially

for the mammoth proposed Solar Power Satellites.

So more satisfactory sites for the envisioned industrial colonies were

found at L4 and L5, located the same distance from the Earth as is the

Moon, yet without the moon's gravitational well to contend with. Towns

built there could spin like a wheel, inside of which would be the same

effective force as earth's gravity, enabling conventional life

activities, such as bathing and going to the toilet, very necessary

frequent activities which are very difficult in free-fall without

gravity to move things downward. With a means of getting the raw

material from the Moon's surface over to the industrial towns at L4

and L5, they could build the massive multigigawatt power stations for

providing electricity to the many civilizations on earth surface.

These power plants would need to be moved to the unique orbit around

Earth that is synchronized with the rotation of the earth, so that

objects placed in it appear to hang motionless over the Earth's

equator without effort. Proposed by Arthur Clarke, communication

satellites have inhabitated this GEO orbit for decades already.

Even this Geosynchronous Earth Orbit itself, also known as the Clarke

Belt, could be a site for industrial towns, given adequate

transportation facilities for materials and personel. GEO is a lot

closer to Earth tnan is the Moon, L4 or L5. Yet at this time it is an

extreme effort to place even communication satellites there; how could

we possibly build towns and cities there? At a cost of $1000 a pound

delivered there, it would cost $150,000 to put an average weight

person there, not to mention the cost of taking his/her luggage along,

and building a home there.

In 1983 the "L5 NEWS" published an outline of an outrageous

transportation concept, called "The Texas and Universe Railroad", by

Earle Smith. Although there were many holes in the concept as

presented there, it proposed building an exotic form of a railway that

circulates quasi-elliptically between Earth surface and GEO. Since

there are no known materials strong enough to build such a bridge

extending 22,300 miles up, the tracks for the railway would be built

on a bridge structure supported by the stored high speed kinetic

energy of mass circulating within it, analogous to a combination of a

high-shooting water fountain and a circulating pulley belt, only using

a belt made of iron links in this form. Iron could be pushed and

pulled by appropriately pulsed magnetic fields, thus accellerating and

guiding the iron belt in its path; the belt in turn supported a

electrically powered train rail structure.

The concept has continued to evolve enormously, primarily as described

in KESTS-related files here on the GEnie network. With the payload

capacity of such electrically powered transportation systems, the

first of the 10,000-person-each industrial towns in GEO could then be

built entirely from materials imported from the earthsurface. With

those industrial towns already 22,300 miles up in space, the task of

setting up raw material delivery systems on the Moon or maneuvering a

nearby asteroid to there for processing into the structural components

of more similar towns in GEO.

The real possibility for truely massive space colonization thus opens

up, without need for any new discoveries in fundamental science. Just

a lot of R & D in a new field, that of "kinetically supported

structures", the field of the electromagnetic coupling of masses

traveling at fast orbital velocities in vacuum along channels within a

structure, so as to exchange energy needed to support the weight of

the structure in a gravitational field, and couple energy to move

payload vehicles along the surface of the outside of the vacuum stream

channels.

Some distantly related R & D has already been done, that

of O'Neill's electromagnetic mass driver technology. Particle

accellerators also use some of the general principles of

electromagnetically manipulating fast masses. The need to create

transportation systems adequately free of the low frequency pulsing

magnetic fields which are damaging to the human biosystem, linked to

some forms of cancer such as leukemia, is also pointed out.

With the real possibility for space colonization within a mere decade

or two, given an adequate active enthusiasm by humanity for the

project, it is not necessarily true that there is no hope that the

average person living in the present time will be able to live in a

comfortable space colony. (However, that enthusiasm is conspicuously

missing at the present time, note.)

And it is not necessarily so that massive space colonization in our

time cannot remove the population/resource pressure on the Earth

surface ecosystem in time to provide ecological balance and genetic

diversity. Thus the massive process of cutting back the human

population, already currently in process using the HIV disease and

another subtle process, is not necessarily needed anymore to protect

the Earth's ecosystem from destructive imbalance by an expanding

minimally-competant human civilization population.

*********************************************************************

6. TECHNICAL PRINCIPLES: KINETIC STRUCTURES IN GENERAL

A kinetic structure, as referred to in this document, basically is a

compression bridge structure that inherently carries the energy which

propels vehicles along its outside surface. In general, a Kinetic

Structure would maintain its shape against forces acting against

itself by using the kinetic energy of rapidly moving mass within

itself to resist those forces. The mass stream's intrinsic path is

maintained by automatically re-optimizing the velocity of each of the

elements at thrust points along it's path. Energy coupling to these

elements is electromagnetic, except chemical propulsion can be used

during one form of the initial massive distributed energy input during

erection of the structure.

GENERAL SHAPES OF KINETIC STRUCTURES

The direction of motion of the rapidly moving masses determines the

forces which determine the shape of such a structure. A static shape

is created by the balance of these internal kinetic energy forces with

externally applied forces.

One common example of a static kinetic structure is that of an

inflated balloon, which maintains its shape by using the energy of the

rapidly moving mass of the gas molecules within itself. It tends to be

spherical in shape due to the random omnidirectional moving masses

within itself. Lining the moving masses up to all go the same

direction, forming a narrow stream approximating ballistic

trajectories at orbital velocities, we begin to see potential for

traversing great distances, even upward beyond the atmosphere and

back.

If a long piece of string has its ends tied together, it can lie

crumpled in a heap on the table. However, if it is picked up and then

somehow vigorously spun around its own center, it would tend to

stretch out into the shape of a circle by the action of the

circulating form of its kinetic energy.

This long, thin shape lends itself to the formation of bridges, which

would balance the force of gravity on the structure and its carried

loads by using the force of balancing deflection of the mass of the

rapidly moving mass stream within the structure of the bridge.

Arranging the mass elements to all move along the same direction with

each other, a mass stream is formed. Instead of the spherical balloon

structure, the mass stream forms a long relatively thin structural

shape.

DYNAMICS INVOLVING THE KINETIC STRUCTURE

Consider the long thin path of a stream of mass elements moving at

orbital velocities which are electromagnetically coupling their energy

weakly to their surroundings. This electromagnetic coupling of energy

allows their guidance and accelleration/decelleration. Decelleration

energy exchange provides a mechanism for supporting vehicle trackways

along its path, coupling energy to propel vehicles along those

trackways, supporting the weight of surrounding evacuated tubing along

atmsopheric portions of the path, and resisting deflection by external

lateral forces.

If an external load is applied at some point against that mass stream,

it would find itself resisted due to its deflection of the direction

of the mass stream at that point. A small portion of the kinetic

energy of the elements of the rapidly moving mass stream is used up in

that resisting mechanism. If the circulating system has the ability to

restore the original position and velocity of the elements of the mass

stream, such as at the two endpoints of a parabolic arch spanning some

area, then it has the ability to maintain its structural integrity

against such external forces. Such forces could be the weight of

evacuated tubing surrounding the path of the parabolic arch, payloads

moving along it, and wind loads. For balance, the path of the stream

needs to be like a highway, supporting equivalent traffic flow in both

directions along side-by-side lanes. This is necessary both to cancel

out the longitudinal component of external loads applied at a point,

and also needed because in an arch against the pull of gravity, only

the upward-moving stream can support loads.

(There is an exception to this. If the external load supplies energy

to actually accellerate the downward mass elements even faster

downward, it would produce an upward stpporting force on the external

load. An example of this is in supporting the weight of a solar

electric powerplant located on the side of the arch. Such a powerplant

would increase the energy stored in the rapidly moving mass stream;

the additional energy could then be extracted elsewhere along the

stream, thus also providing the function of a power transmission

line.)

ELEMENTS OF THE MASS STREAM

The design of the mass stream elements needs fit several criteria.

First,they need to contain a permanent magnetic field source, because

this is generates current in coils which it passes through so as to

give off energy, and is also the field which is thrust against when

the mass element is being re-accellerated and guided. Probably several

sets of permanent magnetic field sources will be needed so as to more

easily define its position and velocity when it is being course and

velocity corrections by the earth surface accellerators. Second, they

need to be able to withstand physical contact with other elements in

the mass stream; probably there will be a periodic wear parameter

observed, and those exceeding specs would be culled from the stream

and replaced with refurbished ones. Third, there are different types

of mass elements. Most are simply kinetic energy quanta; others serve

specialized functions such as carrying small specialized payloads

material within themselves and others being payload on a one way trip

to be raw material for structural components.

*********************************************************************

7. TECHNICAL PRINCIPLES: KINETIC STRUCTURES BRIDGING SURFACE TO ORBIT

The shape of the kinetic structure is determined by the geography it

traverses; in this case, the spherical shape of the planet. Each

kinetic structure would consist of a minimum of two contra-rotating

mass streams which are laterally coupled all along their length,

roughly taking the shape of an ellipse which touches the earth surface

at its lowest end, and circling the planet, touches the altitude of

the habitat ring at its highest end. This shape requires the least

magnetic field strength at the bending points on or near the

earthsurface, where the greatest deformity from the elliptical shape

is needed to avoid dual surface contact sites.

PLANETARY BODY ACCESS STRUCTURAL SHAPES

Besides the vertical loop and the parabolic arch shapes, there is

another basic form. If the mass stream is sufficiently large as to

extend upward at an angle from some point on the earth's surface, it

could continue on to be gradually bent by the earth's gravitational

field to circle the earth to return to its point of origin, such as

from a point on the equator circling around the earth back to itself.

All the way around the Earth, extending far out into space on the

opposite side of the planet from its surface contact central point.

Non-equatorial surface contact points might need a mirroring point on

the opposite side of the equator from itself.

APPLICATIONS OF PLANETARY BODY ACCESS KINETIC STRUCTURES

Such large kinetic structures could provide a transportation

capability millions of times greater than what we currently have. This

massive capacity would totally change mankind's relationship with

space. The experience of building and utilizing a Stanford Torus space

settlement in the Clarke Belt, constructed entirely of resources from

the earth surface, could teach us a lot which would help in the design

of more of the settlements, as well as learn technological and

sociological techniques useful on Earth herself. The first space

settlements in the Clarke Belt, permanently connected to earth surface

by the kinetic structures, create a beachhead for returning the the

Moon, this time to create the industrial resource base for building

the main structure of vast numbers of those settlements in the Clarke

Belt. For example, building just one continuous string of Island-One

type 10,000 resident-each stanford torus space settlements all the way

around the earth-circling Clark Belt, would provide residential areas

and supporting agricultural areas for up to 15 billion people. This

would enable a vastly expanding human civilization while taking their

load off of Mother Earth.

*********************************************************************

8. STEP-BY-STEP SCENARIOS LINKING TODAY'S REALITY TO CLARKE BELT CITY

. CAN WE GET THERE FROM HERE?

. ******* YES! IF WE CHOOSE TO, WE CAN! *******

.aParts of the path to space are made already. We have the space shuttle

in current routine operation from ground to low earth orbit and back.

We have the years-orbiting Soyuz space station example. We have the

Apollo footprints on the Moon. We have personally seen and touched

rocks brought back from the Moon. We have precision robot spacecraft

checking out the Moon again, asteroids and our other planets. We know

we can live out there, and out there are energy and materials

resources abundantly awaiting life!

. FROM HERE-AND-NOW TO THERE-AND-THEN

ASprogression from the present-day space scenario (in which the Space

Shuttle routinely is used to move small amounts of people and goods

back and forth between Earth surface and Low Earth Orbit), to a Clarke

Belt City, might be:

OUTLINE OF STEPS:

** Determination of humanity to resume expansion of civilization

** From space shuttle technology, create modular wet-launch system

** Build small artificial gravity modular toroidal space habitat

** Research and build "siphon" type Lunar to Earth orbit transport

** Create stored-energy bridges of the surface-to-surface type

** Create the first surface to Clarke Belt orbit kinetic structures

** Build first 10,000 person "Island One" type space habitat

** Convert kinetic structural support energy source to solar thrust

** Develop lunar material resource base, using 2-body skyhook

** Convert lunar-to-Clarke Belt transportation link to massive link

** Create robotic construction system to build 1.5 million Island-1's

** 15-billion-humans live in Ring Country & 1 billion on earthsurface

** Restoration of the Earth surface ecosystem to long term balance

** Earth surface as a cherished balanced genetic biodiversity resource

** Expanding outward to other solar system vast resources

.*STEPS IN MORE DETAIL:

Humanity decides to actively move the majority of people to

near-earth space, out of the direct path of the earth's fragile

ecosystem, instead of continuing down the present course of events of

depopulation of the planet through fatal disease and artificially

induced incompetance. Instead, the Clarke Belt City is chosen as a way

to preserve an expanding human civilization population in nearly

earthlike artificially constructed space habitat environments, while

also preserving and healing the Earth surface ecosystem.

Pre-assembled sections of a toroidal space station design are put

into low earth orbit by the creation of a flyback engine/control type

wet launch module vehicle, largely using the existing proven Space

Shuttle technology. The wheel-shaped space habitat is first built on

the ground in the form of pre-fitted modules linked in a circle. The

design of each module is for dual use, the other use is for being the

fuel tank and payload of an unmanned engine & control module which

launches them into low earth orbit. The unmanned engine/control

module flies back to the launch site for the next module's launch,

much as the present space shuttle returns to the Earth's surface.

(Refer to Genie Spaceport library files "Centristation III" and #2931

"Centristation IV".)

Use these unmanned wet-launched prefitted modules to build

artificial gravity space stations made of circles of these linked

modules to prove out the hypothesis that earth surface gravity and

atmospheric pressure in a rotating toroid can provide functional

stability in a group living situation which includes other life forms

in a harmonious synthesis. (Centristation III & IV)

The bulk of the physical structure to be built in the Clarke Belt

around the Earth would need to be built out of space resources. The

Moon is handy and has plentiful resources of such materials as

aluminum and titanium. This material needs to be moved from the Moon's

surface to the vicinity of the Clark Belt efficiently and with a

minimum of pre-industrialization of the Moon. Investigate forms of

materials-pumps utilizing the greater depth of potential energy of the

adjacent earth's gravity well, to lift materials up out of the Moon's

gravity well. One way to do this is to store the energy as angular

momentum: an Earth-Moon two-body orbiting Skyhook one-direction

materials pump, which picks up packaged payloads from the far side of

the Moon on a tether, payload and spacecraft tethered whirling

together around their common center-of-gravity as they continue around

the Moon and into Earth's gravity well, the spacecraft regaining its

energy through appropriately timed release of the payload from a

lengthened tether deep into Earth's gravity well. Hans Moravec created

the original spinning skyhook concept. (Refer to #475 "Space

Inspiration" and #927 "Longtrans 2" files.)

Creation of stored-energy bridges on Earth surface to develop the

technology into a high reliability system, while also providing new

modes of long range transportation of large amounts of fuels, water

and other resources. Development of emplacement techniques. Keith

Loftstrom conceptualized related structures of "launch loops." (refer

to files #475 "Space Inspiration" and #2466 "Kinetic Structures III")

Fabrication of the first stored energy bridges to the Clarke Belt

create the links to the new land: the Clark Belt. Earle Smith

conceptualized a form of kinetic-energy supported bridge from Earth

surface to the Clarke Belt. (Files #475, 747 and 2466 are are some of

those on the subject.)

First Clarke Belt "Island One" type 10,000-person space settlement

built from Earth materials, brought up on a stored-energy bridge. This

develops the functional structural design with components built

comparatively easily on the Earth's surface. Outfitting the interior

of the space settlement to include as many earth-normal features as

possible. Tests out agricultural systems, condominium homes on the

interior slopes, and creative stable harmonious social system...and

millions of the other necessary things needing to be tested out there

too. (This general type structure can be found in detail in NASA

SP-413 "Space Settlements: A Design Study", and also in "The High

Frontier" by Gerard K. O'Neill. See also GEnie files such as #747 Hwy

to Earth GEO Ring")

Long term electrical power to support the kinetic energy bridges

needs to come from space resources instead of relying on Earth

resources, so development of solar power electromechanical thrusters

supporting these bridges needs to be done. They would use solar energy

converted into electrical energy to accelerate the downward direction

of the kinetic mass stream so as to replenish the energy consumed by

the support of the bridge structure and for moving payloads along it.

The thrust of that acceleration would be against the weight of the

power converter, being located along the bridge at points below

synchronous orbit. Excess electrical poser is delivered to

earthsurface power grids via the excess velocity of the downward mass

stream. (Refer to related information on Solar Power Satellites, as

well as files like #2466.)

Lunar industrialization, with a stored energy bridge transportation

system to replace the two-body orbiting Skyhook.

Massive transportation of lunar materials to the Clark Belt using

lunar stored kinetic energy bridges for the major part of the trip.

Robotic construction of more Island One space settlements in GEO,

the Clarke Belt. These 10,000-person-each wheel-like space settlements

would be linked together like the chairs on a ferris wheel, eventually

all the way around the planet in the Clarke Belt. Robotic construction

builds the repetitive toroidal shell structures, then would be spun up

to earth normal interior gravity, pressurized from Earth atmosphere

components, then the interior outfitted in the way things are built on

earth surface by people and machines.

Great living for humanity in the Earth-surface-like Clark Belt

City! It is essential that the functionality and appearance of the

interior of these space settlements resemble normal Earth environments

as much as possible, not only to maintain our long term humanity

there, but also to enable ecological balance with the other imported

diverse current Earth surface ecosystem balancing lifeforms, our

biological partners in space as well as on land and in the sea.

Restoration of Earth surface ecological balance by City dwellers

would become vacation volunteer activity, a periodic pilgramage back

to Earth surface to heal the wounds we have inadvertently already

given to Mother Earth.

Humanity looks inward...and outward. Peaceful co-existence and

capacity for creative solutions to the endless new requirements as the

City ecosystem evolves and harmonizes, will require the dwellers to

understand themselves and their relationships with that within which

they live. The inherent deep subconscious urges toward tribalistic

territoriality and win-lose upsmanship need to be understood and

updated by each City dweller to avoid default disintegration processes

of the mammalian sub-mind. Thus prepared, they can then harmoniously

look outward toward the great resources of our solar system, which yet

await life.

**********************************************************************

9. LIFE IN ORBITAL RING COUNTRY: CLARKE BELT CITY

Such large kinetic structures could provide transportation capability

millions of times greater than what we currently have. This massive

capacity would totally change mankind's relationship with space. The

experience of building and utilizing a Stanford Torus space settlement

in the Clarke Belt, constructed entirely of resources from the earth

surface, could teach us a lot which would help in the design of more

the settlements, as well as learn technological and sociological

techniques useful on Earth herself. The first space settlements in the

Clarke Belt, permanently connected to earth surface by the kinetic

structures, create a beachhead for returning the the Moon, this time

to create the industrial resource base for building the main structure

of vast numbers of those settlements in the Clarke Belt. For example,

building just one continuous string of Island-One type 10,000

resident-each stanford torus space settlements all the way around the

earth-circling Clarke Belt, would provide residential areas and

supporting agricultural areas for up to 15 billion people. This would

enable a vastly expanding human civilization while taking their load

off of Mother Earth.

Here at GEO we can build space colonies, space habitats or

settlements. If we build the wheel-shaped Island One Stanford Torus

space settlement design envisioned by NASA in 1975 (ref. NASA

SP-413, although for use at L-5 then), there is room for 1,475,000 of

these wheels, if strung together like pearls on a necklace for mother

earth, circling the earth above the equator, 5 earth radii above the

planet's surface.

The space habitats each provide comfortable near self-sufficiency for

10,000 people each, as designed by the 1975 summer faculty fellowship

program in engineering systems design (ref NASA SP-413). These

habitats rotate to provide artificial gravity and are passively

shielded. In geosynchronous orbit, they sit stationary relative to

the Earth's surface. There is room in the first string of them in GEO

for 1476000 of them, providing a comfortable limit population of 15

billion people...room enough for everyone now on Earth and for whales,

elephants, redwood trees, and mosquitoes too.

We could, for example, use a continuous coaxial string of "Island One"

space habitats, or a "banded Torus" stretching all way around GEO.

Each Island One Stanford Torus space habitat provides space for

housing, agriculture, community activities, and light industry within

a 130 m (426.5 ft) diameter tube bent into a wheel 1800 m (5906 ft) in

diameter. Passive shielding is 6 feet thick on a side, and with 150

feet for sunlight input, each habitat or layer uses up 590 feet of

GEO. The circumference of GEO for one layer of these habitat sections

is pi * diameter; diameter is the radius of Earth 3950 miles plus

geosynchronous orbital altitude of 22300 miles, times 2, equals

52500miles; times pi equals 165000 miles, which multiplied by 5280

ft/mile, gives 870850000 feet. Each habitat layer uses up 590 feet

apiece, so that is room for 1476000 Island Ones. Since each habitat

layer comfortably houses 10,000 people, the comfortable population

limit for this first layer is 1476000 * 10,000 people, or 1.48E10

people, or about 15 billion people, 4 or 5 times the whole Earth's

present population. Plenty of room! Then we could add more layers....

The first Stanford Torus Space settlements could be built from

materials from the Earth, perhaps one could be built for each nation,

with its own elevator to/from Earth. The vast majority of the Stanford

Torus's would need to be built out of materials found off-planet. GEO

would be a great place to build great spacecraft. So from the first

space colonies at GEO, we would launch hunter-gatherer spacecraft to

go get asteroids for building more Stanford Toruses and create a major

transportation system from the Moon's surface, providing oxygen,

aluminum, titanium for their structures, and rubble for the passive

shielding around each torus.

I would like to think that we can find 6 billion peaceful, harmonious,

mutually supportive, constructively productive, technologically

creative, scientifically competent, ecologically reaponsible

individuals to conceptualize, design, engineer, build own, operate,

and live in the first GEO Habitat Ring with its space elevators.

**********************************************************************

10. CONCLUDING

Life expands and evolves into its environment, converting the

environmental resources into living, conscious protoplasm systems. The

resources of our solar system await the possibility of being processed

into living material. The rich diversity of genetic material now

existing within the Earth's surface ecosystem are key processors for

initializing the building of a solar system ecosystem. The great human

population civilization now within the cradle of Mother Earth, has the

opportunity to leave the cradle to explore and grow and evolve beyond,

as life always does if successful.

A means for massive continuous transportation between the earthsurface

cradle of mankind, and nearby space, needs to be created. The proposed

technology of kinetic-energy supported structures offers this means.

Off-center rings of orbital-velocity mass streams circulate

endlessly between earth surface contact points and orbital points as

high as the geosynchronous orbit called the Clarke Belt.

In orbits at those high points of those kinetic structures, self-

sufficient living habitats can ring the planet.

Essential to this project is a transportation system sufficient to

transport most of the billions of humans living on earthsurface in the

near future, bringing the surface population down to that which its

ecosystem can indefinitely support in balance. Based on a population

density/culture which generates no products non-recyclable by the

surrounding biosphere, and which uses no external resources including

energy resources, making the solar energy influx the daily limit for

indefinite energy consumption, resulting in an overall earthsurface

population density resembling that of the indigenous peoples of the

Amazon rainforest and the Australian Aborigial culture. This means

that only one person out of every 600 people now alive on the planet

can continue to live there indefinetely; the other 599 of every 600

people of the current population size must either die or leave. The

majority of people would be offered a highly attractive option of

having primary residency in the habitats ringing the planet, visiting

the earthsurface only on vacation. This way, human civilization can

continue to thrive and expand, without suiciding Mother Earth's

ecosystem further. The transportation system will need the capacity to

move most of those billions of people, along with their household

belongings and sufficient amounts of certain elements such as hydrogen

and nitrogen for their indefinite support in near space. The vast

majority of the material used to build the habitat rings will come

from the surface of the Moon, which requires another large

transportation system, mostly one-way from the Moon to the habitat

rings.

The continued existence of the Earthsurface-to-near-space

transportation system will result in the surface not being a closed

system after all, since surplus electrical energy derived from space

solar energy can be supplied to earth electrical power grids at the

points of contact of the transportation loops. Some mineral resources

which become exhaused on earthsurface can be resupplied from lunar

resources via the habitat rings, and within the limits of the

transportation system, space habitat-ring-grown agricultural products

could feed some excess of surface human population without disrupting

the delicate ecosysteem balance. Thus the indefinitely sustaninable

earthsurface population might be increased from say 10 million up to

perhaps 100 million people total. This means that around 6 billion

people must have the opportunity to relocate in the near-earth habitat

rings.

From the above, it would appear that electric rail transportation

systems between earthsurface and as far as the Clarke Belt, are

pivital to the subject means for preserving the Earth ecosystem's

diverse balance while also continuing to expand human civilization.

As the strength of conventional materials is far too weak to be able

to support such a rail structure, and electric transmission lines too

lossy over such lengths, the kinetic structure concept offers a means

for supporting and powering the electrtic rail loops from

earthsurface to space and back. The major part of a kinetic structure

actually is a stream of mass moving at a tremendous orbital velocity

within a vacuum throughout its length. Thus it must also support the

weight of evacuated tubing in the portion within the earth's

atmosphere. The weight of the mass stream does not need to be

supported because it is substantially in orbital free-fall all along

its length, except at points where it is electromagnetically

accellerated, and insofar as a tiny fraction of its kinetic energy is

used up in the support of the weight of the rail structure and

payload-carrying rail vehicles travelling upon it.

The sufficient transportation system link needs to be created from

scratch. A proposed new technology which appears to be able to

satisify this need, is the construction and operation of

transportation structures supported by stored kinetic energy.

In this key transportation concept, payload is carried on high-speed

low-friction magnetic-levitation train tracks which are in turn

supported by a pair of path-defining and vacuum-guaranteeing tubes,

through which a continuous stream of electromagnetically coupled mass

elements flows at orbital velocities, say 20,000 mph at the points

intersecting the earth surface. This mass stream couples a small

fraction of its energy to support the surrounding tubular structure

and to propel the payload vehicles along the tracks. Such a structure

seems able to be built in a continuous loop with the earth surface at

its low end, and the orbital altitude of the civilization habitat ring

at its high end.

This purpose of this document is to summarise the previous work on the

proposed space project of building a Clarke Belt City connected to

Earth surface points by electromagnetic railways supported by kinetic

structure technology, and restoring Earth ecological balance.

The need to create such a system now is urgent, while we still have

the technological capability to make it, and before accellerating

forces of nature and despotism produce an increasingly incompetant,

semi-hypnotized, loveless population... a tragic turn of events for a

species which has had a tremendous potential, and made incredible

achievements before.

LET US CONSIDER CHANGING FROM LEAPING ROCKETRY TO SLIDING SPACETRAINS.

J. E. D. Cline 940920

An Excalator Hi page titled GeSp5711 by J E D Cline started on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 5:41:26 PM US/Pacific

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