[extropy-chat] stardust at home

[spike]

> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of spike
...
> ...but the real reason to do
> this would be to increase the rotation rate of the planet.  Once
> we spin it up to about a milliradian per second, from its current
> ~72 microradians per second, stuff at the equator becomes
> nearly weightless.  That is a good starting point for taking
> material off of the planet... spike



How long would this take?  I did a quicky back of the
envelope one digit calculation and get about ten million
years.  This is the fastest possible rate, assuming no
atmospheric losses of sunlight, and every square meter of
planet surface covered with a perfectly reflecting
mirror shooting solar photons westward.  

Of course there are those nasty practical considerations
that partially spoil the fun, but if we have a billion years 
before the sun goes red super giant, we should be able to spin
up this planet such that equatorial residents would be
weightless.  How cool would that be?  ("Ward, Im worried
about the Beaver.  He and Wally were having a highjump
competition in the back yard, and I haven't seen them
since.")

spike

{8^D