The HiVolt System

[greylion]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HiVolt
http://www.tethers.com/HiVOLT.html (and the next two pages)

Seems someone wants to 'discharge' the inner Van Allen belt with a system of satellites with 100 km long tethers extended.

Any predictions for what could possibly go wrong?


(I considered asking in the Planetary Science subforum, but didn't think it was the right place for it).

Edit: Correction, only the inner belt.

[rduke]

LoL --- Will someone please take the two pronged forks away from the toddlers! and cap the outlets!

I imagine it will be overloaded, perhaps taking a few other nearby sat's along with it.-- in the best case scenario- I do not want to think of what will happen if it actually worked!!-- Or if things really got hairy!

I do not think it will end well.. or an inherently good idea.

I really wish they would stop messing with things they do not really understand. ---

If we really have to think about getting space ships out of the local Earth area... wouldn't the poles be the smoothest way out?

Directly to their intent!

Don't the Belt's protect us?

Aren't they a byproduct of our Magnetosphere and the current that connects us to the rest of the Solar system??

They want to remove them???

Do they want to blow up the Sun next?


These people are the Mountain Top Removal Coal miners of Aerospace!!

Imbecilic!

[Osmosis]

Don't forget the tethered satellite experiments The tether was quite flimsy and had air trapped in it. This seems to have caused the thing to blow apart.

What we need is a much stronger tether. Perhaps a Vectran strength member and a nice heavy copper braid. Over all a good slick Teflon jacket.

Then we can discharge the nasty double-layer and cause some real mayhem

Let's go for FUNDING!!

[KickLaBuka]

Please tell me it's not true. I can't even visit those links. There is a better way out. Damnit, read my book. Nobody should be making any decisions right now!

[nick c]

This would cause charged particles that encounter the tethers to have their pitch angle changed, thus over time dissolving the Van Allen belts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HiVolt

This is sounding like the script to a bad sci-fi movie. We have a bunch of smug scientists that think they know everything about how things work, when in reality they are missing a large piece of the puzzle, predictably they get their comeuppance when their plan has disastrous results.

Let's hope the damage is kept to a minimum.

nick c

[solrey]

What the bloody hell are they thinking? HiVolt...they're gonna find out what high voltage through plasma can do to their puny little metal marbles on the end of a wire.

The radiation belts are ring currents created by the flow of charged particles around a spherical conductor. Birkeland's Terella experiments produced ring currents and the "Terella" research in the '60's by NASA produced the same. The ring currents/radiation belts, are well defined structures due to their double layers. What happens when a region of a double layer becomes overloaded? The energy in the entire circuit discharges through the instability, basically a runaway particle storm focused through the breach in the DL.
I think it'll be over in a FLASH, once the DL is breached, the tether/satellite system will be "vaporized" into plasma, a wicked intense version of NASA's Shuttle Tether fiasco, and there might be some moderate geomagnetic storms as a result. We should get some enhanced auroral activity too.
And some embarrassed scientists.

[rduke]

Ahh then ... By all means lets make them do it as soon as possible!

[solrey]

Sure, I say go for it. It might actually help to prove EU theory by creating a Thunderbolt!
They say the sat./tether system would be "charged to a high voltage". A charged object immersed in plasma will form a double layer. To add more detail to my previous comment, it will be the DL of the sat/tether that produces the instability/discharge in the DL of the ring current/radiation belt once the two DL's come into contact.
Maybe they should read Alfven's paper on "Double Layers in Astrophysics".
Or not, because the fireworks should be fun to watch, if they actually follow through with this wacky idea.

[rduke]

Yes indeed...

As long as they do this one before they think about doing that seriously suicidal Space Elevator idea...

[Osmosis]

Ahh yes, the Space Elevator--was it to be made from Carbon fiber cable? This could be the best way to short the Van Allen belts!

I think the EU should start selling Faraday suits!

[mharratsc]

LOL "Faraday suits"!

Sounds like it would chafe a bit...


Mike H.

[bboyer]

Stumbled across this and figured I'd throw it in this thread for anyone interested. A bit dated (1997). Available to download as pdf or plain text.

Tethers in Space Handbook
3rd Ed. 1997
Edited by M.L. Cosmo and E.C. Lorenzini
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
for NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

http://www.scribd.com/doc/13841374/Teth ... ook-3rd-Ed