Hacker News Reader

I've always thought something like the Skyhook described in Seveneves by Neal Stephenson would be perfect for lifting things off of high gravity worlds where the rocket equation is a deal breaker, provided you were starting in orbit or outside of the gravity well:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17900992

Maybe the materials science would still be a deal breaker, but in theory it would be easier to build than a space elevator.

View on HN

Huh, very interesting. Yes, I wonder where current materials engineering puts us for a maximum length cable. It might be usable to just fly a plane up to it at some point. This also brings to mind capturing an asteroid in LEO. (Surely super dangerous though.)

I can't help but think SpaceX and the rest of us are missing out by targeting places like the moon or mars when there are so many asteroids out there. Maybe some of them could be used as a space station or slowly morphed into a spaceship with higher mass than we could ever launch? (like 1036 ganymed)

If we ever start really living and working in space it seems like we might reach a point where going down into deep gravity wells like Earth or even Mars will be too expensive to be worth it most of the time.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com