[extropy-chat] sjbrain calcs

[Eugen Leitl]

On Sat, Dec 20, 2003 at 10:23:41AM -0800, Mike Lorrey wrote:
> 
> I am wondering, since we are dealing with micron sized particles,
> whether you could actually have a sperical cloud rather than a dust
> ring without lots of collisions of particles. I am wondering if

You can't, of course. Spike, don't you know what happens at the poles, where
all orbits intersect?

> electrostatic repulsion would be sufficient at those scales to prevent
> actual collisions and instead replicate a form of brownian motion.
> Theoretically, by living off of solar energy, such particles could
> avoid loss of momentum that such motion would cause.

I don't see how you can actively control particle orbits without using solar
sails (+PV panels as dual use), and this implies pretty big ones. At least
somethign the size of your palm, depending on how it scales a lot bigger.
 
> This would also create an electrostatic bottle effect on solar wind,
> which would help keep the sphere inflated.

You need a fat flux to keep dust motes (cubic micron is too small to package
anything interesting in there) afloat, so you'll get your stuff cooked.

Sorry, no can do, chief. Monolith clouds is more like it, though certainly
far more gossamer.

-- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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