Orbital Elevators (was Re: Non-combat craft)

> For really big orbital facilities, you might want to

Actually, it would be longer than 6". The 6" orbital radius in More Thrust
would be Low Earth Orbit, LEO, not Geostationary Earth Orbit, GEO, which is
much higher up.

To deliver troops, cargo, or orbital bombardment, LEO is the place to be. It's
the 90 minute (roughly) orbit used by the Space Shuttle, and most of the
sattelites out there. Someone postulated on the list that a FT turn was
roughly 15 minutes long, so the 'orbit' given in MT has to be a LEO orbit.
Given this timeframe, GEO would be represented simply by ships coming to a
stop some distance above the planet.

To get back on topic, a beanstalk or orbital elevator would probably be longer
than 3", but as the cable itself is a very small thing, what would
be best represented on the table would be the terminus/transfer space
station at the top end of the cable. That would have the boat bays, defences,
cargo holds etc, and possibly dock ships as well as act as the top end of the
elevator.

(For a good discussion of orbital elevators, read any of the Mars books by Kim
Stanley Robinson, especially the first two, "Red Mars" and "Green Mars"
(They're great books anyway))

Speaking also of giant planet-ringing stations, did anyone see that
Luna-ringing space station/dockyard in "Starshit Troopers"? Horrible
movie, but some of the space scenes were good, esp. the stations...

Just my $0.02 (Canadian, therefor worth about half a cent Yank...):)