GeSp819

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Number: 819 Name: HIGH SUBURBIA COMMUTE:1

Address: J.E.D.CLINE1 Date: 890414

Approximate # of bytes: 12600

Number of Accesses: 16 Library: 3

Description:

Subject index and more thoughts on

KESTS (Kinetic Energy Supported

Transportation Structures)

directly connecting Earth surface with an

Earth-circling ring of rotating space settlements

(each similar to Stanford Torus

design), filling Geosynchronous

Earth Orbit.

Keywords: KESTS, GEO, settlements, Torus,

transportation,beanstalks,elevators

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

The Commute to High Suburbia, pt. 1 April 14, 1989

by J. E. D. Cline

More thoughts on Kinetic-energy-supported transportation

structures directly connecting earth surface with an

earth-circling ring of rotating space settlements filling

geosynchronous earth orbit. And an index of subjects.

*** THE BIG PICTURE, AS SEEN FROM DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS:

** From the viewpoint of extending human nature's urge to

expand into new territory, transforming the materials found

there into comfortable shelter, good food, family support,

and interesting activities.

** From the viewpoint of a continually advancing

civilization.

** From the viewpoint of high standard of living for all.

**From the viewpoint of restoring the Earth's ecosystem.

** From the viewpoint of preserving a maximum of genotypes.

** From the viewpoint of worldwide harmonious constructive

co-operation, instead of conflict over possession of

dwindling resources of energy, materials, room and food.

** From the viewpoint of generally stopping change while

you're on top, to minimize stress and keep the good life.

** From the viewpoint of generally promoting changes that

could improve the quality of your life, and provide

interesting stimulation.

** From the viewpoint of childhood fables, uneasy feelings,

and of hilarious analogies, that make it easy to think

about.

*** PIECES OF THE BIG PICTURE:

** KESTS: Kinetic-Energy-Supported Transportation Structures.

** Principles of kinetic-energy-supported transportation

structures.

** Different forms of kinetic-energy-supported

transportation structures.

** Prieviously-proposed kinetic-energy-supported

transportation structures.

** Energy storage in KESTS.

** Tranmission of energy over a KESTS.

** Transmission of surplus energy to the Earth-surface

electric power grid via the kinetic-energy-mass-stream of a

KESTS.

** Energy calculations of potential energy change while

lifting payload into space.

** Possible use of KESTS on Earth' surface, for bridges,

transportation of raw material, and a ground commuter

system.

** Power from satellite solar power stations, to run the

KESTS, power for the the GEO Habitat Ring, and power for

Earth-surface electrical power system.

** Geosynchronous earth orbit habitat ring.

** The Stanford Torus: a possible basic segment of High

Suburbia, room for 1,500,000 of them in the first GEO

Habitat Ring.

** Transportation system for construction materials from the

Lunar surface to the GEO Habitat Ring

** Contributors to KESTS, and their contributions, so far.

* Energy calculations of potential energy change while

lifting payload into space: To quote a classic by Arthur C.

Clarke, "The Exploration of Space" (1951), p. 33:" When one

calculates the amount of work that has to be done in lifting

a body from the surface of the Earth to a point so distant

that gravity is negligible, one obtains a surprisingly

simple result. The work involved is exactly the same as

that needed to climb vertically through a distance equal to

the radius of the Earth--say 4,000 miles--in a steady

gravity field, if 'g' remained constant at its sea-level

value." And since the work done while raising an object from

one place to another higher position is simply the product

of the object's weight times the height change, a one pound

weight moved to this far place would be:

work = W X h = 1 lbf * 4000 mi * 5280 ft/mi

work = E = 1*4000*5280 = 2.1E7 ft lbf

work = 2.1E7*3.77E-7 kw hr

work = energy = 7.9 kw hr per pound.

Thus the energy required to lift a pound of payload from

Earth surface to an infinitely far place is only about 8 kw

hr, the same as you use to run a 1 kw electric room heater

for 8 hours. The work, or energy, required to lift a pound

from Earth-surface just to GEO is less than this. How much

do you pay per kw hr on your electric bill?

* FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF CHILDHOOD FABLES, UNEASY FEELINGS,

AND HILARIOUS ANALOGIES, MAKING IT EASY TO THINK ABOUT: The

concept of kinetic-energy-supported structures are so

strange that even many people devoted to creating a

spacefaring civilization are either outraged or overcome

with laughter at it. It IS an outrageous idea, we all know

that. Reminds us of Jack and the Beanstalk fairy

tale...Jack with his axe chopped it down. Also reminds us

of the biblical Tower of Babel, where it is said the

ancient Babylonians tried to build a ziggurat tower so high

that it would enable man to enter the 'heavens.' Failed

because the construction workers couldn't all speak the same

language, and communication problems ended the project in

babel, so it is said. Strength of materials limitations

also cancelled the Russian Artsutanov'v concept to build a

tower on earth so tall that it went out past GEO, and was

supported by the centrifugal force as it rotated around with

the earth...even pure diamond isn't strong enough to

support its own weight, however. Space elevators?? That

reminds us of flying saucers and teleportation, right?

Riding elevators in buildings makes us feel uneasy, stomach

queasy, all crammed in there with a crowd and hoping it

doesn't break and go crashing down to the bottom. A space

elevator supported by energy would be too unstable. Why

live in space, anyway? Living in space is like living in a

submarine, and everything is too light and floats away....

However, KESTS is not truely an entirely new concept, for

nature has been doing it for eons. The next time you see a

water fountain in action, squirt water out of a hose, or

absorb the beauty of a waterfall, you are seeing a

kinetic-energy supported stream. To make it into a

structure, imagine the fast jet of water supporting a tube

which it flows through, a tube which in turn has moving

objects moving along it, and you have a picture of a

kinetic-energy-supported transportation structure. So it is

neither new nor entirely novel.

It is helpful to contemplate amusing thoughts of squirting

water streams, beanstalks into the sky, Jack with his axe

and urge to grab gold from beyond the earth, for they

provide a framework to think of things perhaps never really

thought about before. After we sober up after such

hilarity, we can perhaps start seriously envisioning

kinetic-energy-supported transportation systems linking

every nation to sections of an earth-circling ring of

Stanford-Torus space settlements filling geosynchronous

Earth orbit...the Clarke Belt...providing suburb-like

habitation for at least 15 billion people with the

agriculture to sustain them there.

Perhaps these childhood thoughts, stirring around in the

subconscious for decades, and linking up with contemporary

technology, have found something that can truly provide

masive space colonization, and in our time if humanity

really decided to go for it in a big way. A lot of

development and engineering would be required, yet no new

fundamental discoveries need be made, to produce

kinetic-energy-supported transportation structures. For

example, high-temperature superconcuctors would be helpful

for some aspects of the concept, but are not really

necessary. Because the kinetic energy of the high velocity

stream can be tapped not only to support a fixed outer

shell, but also deliver power to lift vehicles travelling

along its outside, it could resemble a mixture of elevator

and electric streetcar crossing a bridge. And some of the

mass of the actual stream can be payload itself, forming a

simple delivery system of immense amounts of material.

Since the transportation concept does not need to await any

scientific discoveries, but just the creation and

development of a new technology based on rather well-known

basic principles, the rate at which this can be accomplished

is more a function of how much of our time and effort we

are willing to put into it. A small corporation could

tinker around with it for decades. Or a worldwide top

priority effort could probably have most nations linked to

GEO within ten years, and start building space habitats

there for tens of thousands of people per month each, in

another ten years. And ten more years would see a high

capacity transportation link to lunar raw materials for

building habitats at GEO, and automated basic shell

construction equipment, building High Suburbia at the rate

of tens of millions of dwellings/life support per year, and

more. Thirty years from now most of humanity could be living

in High Suburbia, and the restoration of Earth surface

ecosystems could be strongly ongoing. With a massive effort

worldwide, that is!

Or with no effort, we can continue down the path we are on

right now, with its projected exhaustion of some natural

resources, vast mountain ranges built of disposed garbage,

tyrannical birth control measures, and extinction of most of

the kinds of other living creatures with which we have

always shared this planet. Maybe these happenings even

accellerated by warfare using nerve gasses, poisons, nuclear

radiation and blast, deliberate spread of diseases...who

knows what the mind of man would be put to do, if blocked

from its natural creatively constructive expansion nature?

Since in recent decades America has changed from mostly

middle class to shift the vast majority of wealth into the

hands of a very few people, the possibility exists that the

ultra-rich & powerful (consider money as a form of energy,

in a sense, for it can ""do work", which is the criteria for

energy) will either see KESTS/ high Suburbia as a threat

upsetting their successful activities; or else some of them

may see KESTS as a way to vast riches beyond any imagining

now. If established as a real estate project, selling real

estate for billions of people means big bucks even if the

average income to pay for the dwellings is relatively low.

For example, say only one billion of "excess" population

went to live in High Suburbia over the next 30 years, and

their average ability to pay would be only $1,000 down

payment, with another $10,000 to be paid after being

established there: that means an initial 1 trillion dollars,

with $10 trillion more to come. Most of High Suburbia

would be built out of lunar materials by a large robot

processing, manufacturing and assembly facility that largely

automatically adds onto the habitat ring in GEO, requiring

only high-tech instrumentation and maintenance and certain

raw materials from Earth surface (or eventually the

asteroids and moons of the outer planets), thus requiring

relatively little capital investment from the Earth once it

is going.

Another liklyhood is that Japan will build the first KESTS,

because they have a high population, small land living area,

high-technology capability, and the wisdom of a culture

that teaches both sides of the brain, even has a written

language for each side of the brain. Thus they inherently

are better able to balance linear thinking with big-picture

thinking, at every level in their culture. Seeing both the

forest and the trees, so to speak. Japan is far more likely

to see the tremendous value of High Suburbia & KESTS than

people in countries where only linear thinking is taught in

schools, such as here in America currently.

It would be much better to create High Suburbia/KESTS as a

project including every interested nation, with equal rights

to portions of the GEO Habitat Ring; each nation would have

one or more KESTS from their land to their sections of the

GEO Habitat Ring, High Suburbia.

I would like feedback from all readers, feedback of any kind

(written feedback, that is. Please, no hit squads!) I

have some sketches that might help visualize KESTS and High

Suburbia, if people would like them. Send request/feedback

via GEnie mail, or write directly to:

J. E. D. Cline

5632 Van Nuys Blvd, #110

Van Nuys, CA 91401

An Excalator Hi page titled GeSp819 by J E D Cline started on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 5:10:53 PM US/Pacific

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