Editing Talk:1461: Payloads

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Getting to space is easy, staying in space is hard.
 
Getting to space is easy, staying in space is hard.
  
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The energy required to get to 100km, briefly, is about 1 MJ/kg
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The energy required to get to get to 100km, briefly is about 1 MJ/kg
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The energy required to stay in low earth orbit is a bit over 30 MJ/kg  
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The energy required to stay in low earth orbit is a bit over 30 MJ/kg
  
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It's tricky to get to low earth orbit with a space elevator, you can go up 200km, but as soon as you let go of the elevator you come down.  If you put enough mass at 200km the whole elevator comes down.  Not sure which number to use, but I'd go with the 30 MJ/kg, or 15 GJ/horse.  So the solar array is about 240kW (averaged over the whole year) and the power plant is 2.5GW.  This looks a bit high so maybe the horses don't stay in orbit.
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It's tricky to get to low earth orbit with a space elevator, you can go up 200km, but as soon as you let go of the elevator you come down.  If you put enough mass at 200km the whole elevator comes down.  Not sure which number to use, but I'd go with the 30 MJ/kg
  
 
--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.248|108.162.219.248]] 15:49, 18 December 2014 (UTC)
 
--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.248|108.162.219.248]] 15:49, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

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