A Line to the Moon

[foodchain]

If you somehow were able to attach a line to the moon, for example a chain(does not have to be though), and then attach it to earth what would that look like visually, and also what effects would that have in a 24 hour period, and could you climb it?

 

*I have no idea on where to place such a thread or even if its acceptable on this forum.

[jackson33]

If you somehow were able to attach a line to the moon, for example a chain(does not have to be though), and then attach it to earth what would that look like visually, and also what effects would that have in a 24 hour period, and could you climb it?

 

*I have no idea on where to place such a thread or even if its acceptable on this forum.

 

there are lots of problems with the idea in a practical way; if the lines were attached to the moon and not on earth and you could catch this line which would travel about 900 mile per hour, you could climb. since were in lala land, you trip would be hard till out of earths gravity, easy till you reached the moons gravity and you would be letting yourself down (not climbing) when there.

 

wonder how much a chain 240k miles long would weight???

[foodchain]

there are lots of problems with the idea in a practical way; if the lines were attached to the moon and not on earth and you could catch this line which would travel about 900 mile per hour, you could climb. since were in lala land, you trip would be hard till out of earths gravity, easy till you reached the moons gravity and you would be letting yourself down (not climbing) when there.

 

wonder how much a chain 240k miles long would weight???

 

I know, it would probably have to be mounted on some rail system on the earth, the upside is all the energy creation from it, I think you could at any rate. Trying to get on the line would be next to impossible in most regards unless the rail system had a cart of even a plane to match speeds, then again 900mph winds probably would be very hard on a human body. I wonder how loud it would be overall, that’s another thing to think about. Also the weight of whatever object or medium or matter you used for the chain would be immense regardless if it was a chain to made of some foam substance. So getting it up to the moon would pose a serious problem in that regard also. Its practically impossible in my opinion too, I was just wondering what other people think it might look like, personally I think a view of such would be rather awesome to behold but such is not really worth the endeavor it would take to implement a line to the moon and related environmental impacts. Plus lastly I doubt we really have any material that could withstand everything considered to support such, not for any real length of time that is, maybe if it was some sort of nanotube but then what’s the point?

[Klaynos]

The friction (and if it was metalic the friction due to passing through the earths magnetic field) would GREATLY dampen the orbit of the moon, causing some seriouse issues quite quickly...

[jackson33]

for a number of reasons, the idea will never be considered.

 

however what i think interest you are in "Space Elevator Theory", which some are working on. the object to get equipment and materials into space and even this 122 mile project is questionable. you might google and get a handle on the principles...

[Gypsy Cake]

Hi Foodchain,

 

I dont think that the moon would stay equidistant from the earth's surface and therefore the line would have to be extensible to avoid disturbing the orbits, in this sense(there is of course the friction afore mentioned)

[the tree]

I don[']t think that the moon would stay equidistant from the earth's surface

Correct. It would vary by about 40 000 km. Which is quite a lot for any material to stretch.

[hypertilly]

An inspiring idea.

Who knows what may be possible one day with the silk that spiders create.

[Gypsy Cake]

Fair comment hypertilly,

But lets think would we fancy attaching a spider's web to a body that orbits us. It could result in a slight entanglement.

[the tree]

Who knows what may be possible one day with the silk that spiders create.

Building the chain is probably possible with current material technologies, attaching to the respective celestial bodies would be the major issue, y'know, aside from the devastating destruction and chaos that would certainly ensue.

[hypertilly]

In the future we could become far smaller than we are to compliment nanotechnolgy engineering.

A string to the moon sounds most apealing.

[the tree]

But... the death and destruction!

[hypertilly]

We'll be way too sophisticated by then

[insane_alien]

carbon nanotubes have the tensile strength to make an elevator to a counter weight slightly above geo stationary orbit but thats about the best you can hope for. the earth just rotates to fast for the moon.

[the tree]

The mountains and forests and wild life wont be! Neither will the ancient architecture, the oceans, the Moon (it's seriously heavy y'know)!

[hypertilly]

I'd love to see an exploratory drawing / diagram of the whole concept.

Anyone out there fancy that challenge?

[Jacques]

How about attaching the chain to the south pole. You wont need the rail system

[Gypsy Cake]

But the pull from the moon on the chain will tilt the earth.

[Jacques]

Dho I didn't thought of it...

lol

[insane_alien]

not to mention the added complexity of a pivot with enough strength to take the tension and the accelerated melting of the icecaps.

[MolotovCocktail]

I don't think a line to the moon would be possible, given the fact that the orbit is not equidistant and the fact that you would need some really, really strong material to keep the moon and earth connected. Otherwise, the sheer force of the gravity between the Earth and the Moon would snap it.

[Kailassa]

As we can't anchor the moon to one spot on Earth's surface, it's not in a geosynchronous orbit, we'd first need to build a ring around Earth to attach our end of the carbon nanofibre thread to.

 

Any owners of large dog runs here?

[MolotovCocktail]

Well, I have calculated how strong the chain or rope or structure would have to be in order to stay attached to the Earth:

 

F = (Gm1m2)/(d^2) = [(6.67259 x 10^-11)( 5.97 x 10^24 kg)(7.34 x 10^22 kg)] / (3.90778 x 10^8)^2

 

Force = 1.915 x 10^20 N !!!!!!!!!

 

So, in order to attach the moon to the earth, you would need something that can withstand atleast 1.915 x 10^20 N of force, or about 43044618100860800000 pounds. Not saying that it is impossible, but you have some huge technical hurdles to overcome if you want to attach the Earth to the Moon.

 

Needless to say, it is obviously more practical to have the structure move with the moon's orbit, but that is another problem within itself, since if it doesn't follow the moon's orbit exactly, it will break apart.

[insane_alien]

ehh, thats not the force the chain would need to apply. thats the force of gravity between the earth and moon. which exist now. to have a chain dangling beween the earth and moon it would only need to support its own weight.

[MolotovCocktail]

It isn't the amount of force the chain would have to apply, but it is force that it would have to be able to withstand in order to stay attached.

 

Its like trying to build a space elevator (and why its difficult at this time), the cord attaching the two objects has to be strong enough to withstand the gravitational force between the object and the planet, otherwise it will rip apart.