Hi !
As promised I would like to discuss with you in this thread the idea of a new kind of low cost Space Tower: the Space Hose.
In a nutshell it is about using a lightweight hose made from PE foil which is blown trough from the bottom and is using the frictional forces of the flowing air to produce continuous lift for supporting the weight of the hose.
It was designed as an alternative approach to solving the N-prize problem which is about putting a 9,99 gram satellite into space for 9 orbits and winning
£ 9999,99 when staying within the £ 999,99 budget. Because of the geostationary orbit a space tower offers it would mean keeping the tower upright for a total of 9 days.
You can find a brief presentation including most of the relative simple math in the attached PDF file.
I'm aware that this approach is not a very realistic one due to the huge stability problems when going for a single hose, but the math showed that it could be feasable to support a 100km hose and the needed raw material and energy consumption would be within the N-prize budget, hence I think it is worth sharing with you.
By using plain air at a reasonable blowing speed as the medium for continuously transfering the frictional force to the hose it overcomes most of the limitations of the existing inflatable space tower and the space fountain concept.A head diffusor is making the air blowing out sidewards on top with only a small downward momentum to support the payload and prevent tearing the hose.
And it was fun to find such a new solution and do the math to support it, so I think it is worth sharing the concept!
Have fun reading the slides and Input is welcome !
gutemine/buzz
PS: Sorry, for the bad graphics - I had to compress heavily to get below the 256k limit of the forum for attachments