Questions tagged [skyhook]

A proposed method for orbital launch and transfers. Utilizes a long wire with fixed rotation to manage momentum.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
1 vote
1 answer
155 views

Could a skyhook with double pendulum catch a payload with zero velocity?

It's my understanding the the tip of a rotating skyhook would be travelling at ~3.6 km/s (Mach 10), which presents a major problem. Could this be overcome by attaching a second, smaller, also rotating ...
Michael Currie's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
163 views

How can systems of skyhooks help interplanetary travel

I recently watched a kurzgesagt video on skyhooks, and it mentions that a system of skyhook, one on Mars and one on Earth, can shorten a trip to Mars from 7-9 months to 3-5 months. I am confused on ...
Barry Allen 's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
111 views

Calculating momentum exchange of rotating skyhook

I am struggling to understand how momentum is exchanged during a rotating skyhook's interaction with a payload, during capture and after release. I am a layman in physics, please be forgiving if I've ...
BMF's user avatar
  • 733
3 votes
1 answer
373 views

How much fuel could a rocket save by launching from an airship/blimp?

What could the Kozlov’s Aerosmena project blimp add to fuel saving if space rockets were launched from it? Where would you place the rocket and airship on this chart?
Justintimeforfun's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
119 views

would using both skyhooks and rockoons together be useful?

If my goal with a particular rockoon platform is not for it to reach space on its own but rather reach the lower end of some kind of some kind of skyhook, would the baloon part of the rockoon be more ...
stoby's user avatar
  • 167
1 vote
1 answer
223 views

Constructing a non-rotating skyhook with a rotating one

There are two proposed versions of the skyhook concept: rotating (also known as a rotovator) and non-rotating. They're both meant to reduce the speed a launch vehicle needs to achieve to deliver a ...
Pitto's user avatar
  • 1,196
7 votes
1 answer
2k views

Are there any active or recent projects investigating skyhooks for orbital lift?

On the Wikipedia page for skyhooks, the most recent entry in "History" describes a 2001 effort by the Boeing Phantom Works to draft a proposal for a skyhook system for NASA under the name of HASTOL. ...
Dragongeek's user avatar
  • 17.9k
1 vote
2 answers
581 views

How high *could* a glider reach, to catch a skyhook reaching down from orbit? [closed]

At the beginning of the third part of Seveneves Neal Stephenson describes how the protagonist Kath Two travels from the Earth's surface into the orbit with the aid of a Skyhook-named system. The route ...
Auswahl Tropf's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
289 views

How to calculate drop due to ship docking at orbital tether

I am exploring some of the properties of a vertical orbiting tether (or non-rotating skyhook). This particular tether has a quite large mass at the location with a circular orbital velocity, with the ...
SE - stop firing the good guys's user avatar