I think there are many things to ponder in this proposal:

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/analemma-tower-asteroid-skyscraper

Recruiting an asteroid

According to detailed plans revealed by New York-based firm Clouds Architecture Office (CAO), Dubai could one day build a gargantuan skyscraper that would actually float in the above skyline.

How would it do this? As it turns out, CAO is looking to outer space as the platform to hang the building from – more specifically, a passing asteroid.

The Analemma Tower would be a Universal Orbital Support System, built in Dubai due to its specialisation in extremely tall buildings – but this would not be its only location.

Once the engineers have sorted out the small problem of trying to get a huge asteroid into orbit over Earth, a high-strength cable would need to be affixed by astronauts, and then lowered to the Earth to be attached to the building.

Although it sounds like an idea thrown together as an April Fool’s Day prank, CAO has revealed detailed schematics showing how the orbital mechanics of such a skyscraper (or ‘Earthscraper’, in this case) would travel across the globe.

Yeah, nah.

I just read that at another site

http://www.tristatehomepage.com/news/business/this-skyscraper-is-out-of-this-world-literally/682867877

I wonder how much heat it would have to deal with?

That would be an expensive skyscraper. Land prices in Dubai must be horrendous.

wasn’t there some experiment regarding hanging a cable down into the atmosphere that didn’t end well?

https://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/wtether.html

Tau.Neutrino said:

I just read that at another site

http://www.tristatehomepage.com/news/business/this-skyscraper-is-out-of-this-world-literally/682867877

I wonder how much heat it would have to deal with?

I think heat would be the least of their problems.

AwesomeO said:

That would be an expensive skyscraper. Land prices in Dubai must be horrendous.

Near infinite cost I’d say.

The Rev Dodgson said:

AwesomeO said:

That would be an expensive skyscraper. Land prices in Dubai must be horrendous.

Near infinite cost I’d say.

blah blah blah carbon nano-tubes…

JudgeMental said:

https://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/wtether.html

Hadn’t heard of that.

It should be noted that deploying a 20 km long cable would be a trivially easy task compared with getting a 50,000 km long cable from asteroid to near Earth.

Never mind the difficulty of getting the asteroid into geo-stationary orbit in the first place.

There has been a few stories about asteroid construction, mining and manipulation. Would it be possible to move an asteroid to an earth orbit. The physics might be fine and prove it possible but I think there might be insurmountable legal and insurance issues. The job would require finance and I cannot see anyone insuring it which usually means no finance. Also I imagine countries and individuals would mount injunctions to stop it.

The Rev Dodgson said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

I just read that at another site

http://www.tristatehomepage.com/news/business/this-skyscraper-is-out-of-this-world-literally/682867877

I wonder how much heat it would have to deal with?

I think heat would be the least of their problems.

Finding the right asteroid would be their first one,

then getting it into orbit their second

then weight

then atmospheric drag

Is this kind of like the space elevator idea?

Witty Rejoinder said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

AwesomeO said:

That would be an expensive skyscraper. Land prices in Dubai must be horrendous.

Near infinite cost I’d say.

blah blah blah carbon nano-tubes…

But…

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2093356-carbon-nanotubes-too-weak-to-get-a-space-elevator-off-the-ground/

buffy said:

Is this kind of like the space elevator idea?

Similar.

Space elevator
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator

Space elevator uses a counter weight.

So one can think of the asteroid as a counterweight.

buffy said:

Is this kind of like the space elevator idea?

Yes, it’s really just a space elevator with a bloody great weight on the Earth end, just to make it more difficult.

The Rev Dodgson said:

buffy said:

Is this kind of like the space elevator idea?

Yes, it’s really just a space elevator with a bloody great weight on the Earth end, just to make it more difficult.

And no fun for the inhabitants if they have to parachute out to leave the building. I assume a helicopter to get back in.

I imagine that all the supplies and water will have to be choppered in daily as well. Any rubbish you can throw out your window, bed pans and tn contents likewise.

There is a fairly good discussion about space elevators sprinkled through the first Science of Discworld book.

A few things:

a) There would be no point in this exercise at all, even if it were possible.

b) The elevation of the asteroid indicated here means that the orbital period is 1.5 days, so this building is going to be dragged through the atmosphere. This system will be losing orbital energy all the time, and will ultimately crash.

c) Ignoring the above and assuming you find a material that has quasi-infinite tensile strength to build this thing out of and also you designed it to have zero drag … these medium orbits cannot be designed to keep a constant height distance from earth because of tidal effects of the moon and sun. It’s normal to observe a variation of many tens of km in absolute altitude. This diagram shows the base being a few km above the ground.

dv said:

A few things:

a) There would be no point in this exercise at all, even if it were possible.

b) The elevation of the asteroid indicated here means that the orbital period is 1.5 days, so this building is going to be dragged through the atmosphere. This system will be losing orbital energy all the time, and will ultimately crash.

c) Ignoring the above and assuming you find a material that has quasi-infinite tensile strength to build this thing out of and also you designed it to have zero drag … these medium orbits cannot be designed to keep a constant height distance from earth because of tidal effects of the moon and sun. It’s normal to observe a variation of many tens of km in absolute altitude. This diagram shows the base being a few km above the ground.

Yes. Exactly so.

I haven’t seen this plan before, but three other plans are well known. The cable down from geostationary orbit, the tower up to LEO, and a spinning cable that touches down to collect cargo before rising up. All three make more sense than this plan.

>>The cable down from geostationary orbit,<<

This is the one discussed in the Science of Discworld book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyTjdkNEgV0&feature=youtu.be&a

Skyscraper that hangs from asteroid -BUSTED!

Just got to hope that I can fix the TV, microwave and garage door opener today. A bit difficult if there’s no electric power.

Oops, wrong thread.

mollwollfumble said:

Just got to hope that I can fix the TV, microwave and garage door opener today. A bit difficult if there’s no electric power.

No power eh? Maybe that’s what wrong with them. :)

mollwollfumble said:

Oops, wrong thread.

Oops, me too. Sorry.