[ExI] pentagon wants orbiting solar power stations

[hkhenson]

At 12:07 AM 10/13/2007, samantha wrote:
>Does anyone know what the danger is from geosynchronous "space junk"?
>I would expect most of the junk is in lower orbits but it seems like a
>good thing to know in planning such a large orbital project.

If you are *in* GEO, it's all going the same speed.

But re "junk," a critical part of a space elevator project would be 
to clean up as much as you could, both because you don't want it 
banging into and cutting the cables and because you *need* the junk 
for the space elevator counterweight.

If you have more junk than you need, you store it at the GEO 
station.  Very large masses at GEO make the consequences of a cable 
cut less of a problem.

Keith