Digest Number 88 Forum: Spacesettlers
Thread: Digest Number 88
# 736 bymikecombs@... on Jan. 29, 2001, 1:47 p.m.
Member since 2021-10-03
From: Ed Minchau [mailto:ed_minchau@...]
few kilometers further from the sun before it acheived a stable
orbit, at 1 gram per square kilometer the difference is only about
25000 kilometers. (napkin calculation)
It would not need thrust to maintain a stable orbit; the stable orbit
is just slightly closer to the earth than the libration point.
Wouldn't that be slightly closer to the sun? I was thinking that if we're
talking about the Lagrange point between the Earth and the sun, which would
be a balance of the centrifugal force and the competing forces of gravity
from the sun and the Earth, and if the effects of light pressure were
exerting a force away from the sun, the way to balance it would be to locate
slightly closer to the sun, so that that slight decrease in gravity from the
Earth would balance the light pressure.
The L1, L2, and L3 points are all unstable on one axis. In the case of the
Earth-Sun L1 point, it's the axis of concern here.
Regards,
Mike Combs
From:
Ed Minchau [mailto:ed_minchau@...]
At 1kg/km^2, the parasol would be only a
few kilometers further from the sun before it acheived a stable
orbit, at 1 gram per square kilometer the difference is only about
25000 kilometers. (napkin calculation)
It would not need thrust to maintain a stable orbit; the stable orbit
is just slightly closer to the earth than the libration point.
Wouldn't that be slightly closer to the sun? I was thinking that if we're talking about the Lagrange point between the Earth and the sun, which would be a balance of the centrifugal force and the competing forces of gravity from the sun and the Earth, and if the effects of light pressure were exerting a force away from the sun, the way to balance it would be to locate slightly closer to the sun, so that that slight decrease in gravity from the Earth would balance the light pressure.
The L1, L2, and L3 points are all unstable on one axis. In the case of the Earth-Sun L1 point, it's the axis of concern here.
Regards,
Mike Combs