Now I’m curious what would actually happen if a planet’s species dedicated themselves to making it happen, build a pyramid up to a geosynchronous orbit so you could theoretically throw something (or jump) and it’ll end up in a higher orbit.
The physics wouldn’t work, of course, but I’m curious exactly how things would go wrong and if there were engineering solutions available to get to the next big thing.
Like one thing is how tall can you get before the base encircles the planet (where trying to add more layers just makes the planet bigger and requires bringing in outside material, which means your geosync orbit gets farther).
Though as you add layers, the surface area increases, so your “pyramid” is actually getting wider as it gets taller, at least at the base.
Or if you can get really high without encircling the planet, how high can you go before affecting the centre of gravity? Could a large enough pyramid give the planet a wobble? Cause flooding on the near side and sea level drops on the far side? How high can you build a solid pyramid before the pressure of it all makes the lowest bricks get melty? Would it even matter or does the rest of the weight just hold it all in place? Or would a sufficiently large pyramid just explode because the sides would give out?
Assuming you had a perfectly strong material that could handle it, is it possible to build a tower to a geosynchronous orbit or will it keep moving away as you add mass to the tower? Would such a tower float in place if you kept building it out past that point and then detached it from the ground?
Now I’m curious what would actually happen if a planet’s species dedicated themselves to making it happen, build a pyramid up to a geosynchronous orbit so you could theoretically throw something (or jump) and it’ll end up in a higher orbit.
The physics wouldn’t work, of course, but I’m curious exactly how things would go wrong and if there were engineering solutions available to get to the next big thing.
Like one thing is how tall can you get before the base encircles the planet (where trying to add more layers just makes the planet bigger and requires bringing in outside material, which means your geosync orbit gets farther).
Though as you add layers, the surface area increases, so your “pyramid” is actually getting wider as it gets taller, at least at the base.
Or if you can get really high without encircling the planet, how high can you go before affecting the centre of gravity? Could a large enough pyramid give the planet a wobble? Cause flooding on the near side and sea level drops on the far side? How high can you build a solid pyramid before the pressure of it all makes the lowest bricks get melty? Would it even matter or does the rest of the weight just hold it all in place? Or would a sufficiently large pyramid just explode because the sides would give out?
Assuming you had a perfectly strong material that could handle it, is it possible to build a tower to a geosynchronous orbit or will it keep moving away as you add mass to the tower? Would such a tower float in place if you kept building it out past that point and then detached it from the ground?