Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Reminds me of Star-Raker...

re: Scaling up ARMXER has some unique challenges

The range and takeoff distance of the aircraft change when you scale them up. This will affect which airports can be used, i.e. have sufficient runway length, and therefore how many areas of the world can or can't be accessed by MIPCC-equipped aircraft for rendezvous with the ARMXER Skyhook. Scaling up of the rendezvous aircraft might require altering the orbit of the Skyhook in order to maximize the number of rendezvous opportunities (maximum utility). Not that it would be a serious problem: the Skyhook would have a very powerful electrodynamic magsail for propulsion. The other alternative is to scale up the tanker aircraft, but for a RASCAL-type aircraft the size of the Star-Raker, with a few hundred passengers onboard, the tanker aircraft might have to be replaced by a fleet of tanker aircraft. In fact I don't think it would work. Something else would have to be done. Perhaps by that point (a hundred years or so from now) we will simply build more airports to ensure an aircraft is available for every rendezvous.

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