• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Grand Tower of the World?

I

igor_kavinski

Lifer
So this is a question for the AT resident structural engineers (@Saylick ?) and maybe geologists and even space scientists: Can humanity build the Grand Tower of the World, with a minimum height of 105 KM (65.5 miles)? How large would its circumference need to be for stability reasons? What would a megastructure like that protruding out into space do to the Earth's orbital mechanics?
 
I don't have experience in high-rise construction, but from what I understand, the major limiting factor in constructing a building that high is simply the strength of Earthly materials. You can only stack materials so high before the bottom-most portion crushes from the weight of the material above it.
 
igor_kavinski said:
So this is a question for the AT resident structural engineers (@Saylick ?) and maybe geologists and even space scientists: Can humanity build the Grand Tower of the World, with a minimum height of 105 KM (65.5 miles)? How large would its circumference need to be for stability reasons? What would a megastructure like that protruding out into space do to the Earth's orbital mechanics?
Click to expand...
An actual tower? I don't think current materials support that notion. A mountain of junk that happens to reach space? Sure, probably won't be very useful though. An elevator? Maybe, we're close to that technologically but we don't have the manufacturing capacity to create carbon nanotubes at that scale.
 
Saylick said:
I don't have experience in high-rise construction, but from what I understand, the major limiting factor in constructing a building that high is simply the strength of Earthly materials. You can only stack materials so high before the bottom-most portion crushes from the weight of the material above it.
Click to expand...
My understanding is that for the bean pole to work, it has to be built as a tensional structure where the outer mass is in geostationary orbit and provides constant tension on the whole structure. The bean pole would have to be considerably taller than 105 km. Rather than anchoring it to the ground, a floating mass as the base would allow the structure to adjust to tidal forces.
 
IronWing said:
My understanding is that for the bean pole to work, it has to be built as a tensional structure where the outer mass is in geostationary orbit and provides constant tension on the whole structure. The bean pole would have to be considerably taller than 105 km. Rather than anchoring it to the ground, a floating mass as the base would allow the structure to adjust to tidal forces.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's the good ol' space elevator concept. You'd need carbon nanotubes or something exotic like that for it to work.
 
Another limit would not only the compression strength of material but stretch strength too. Any forces from the tower wanting to bend would pull on the structural members of the opposite side. Fasteners etc would be a big limit too.

Even if doing a larger structure that takes advantage of the centrifugal force of the earth, it would need to be tall enough that it's entering into satellite space. Having a full tower that is entering that space means you can't have any satellites below it's altitude except for ones on the same orbit as ones in another orbit would eventually cross and hit the tower when the orbits line up.
 
IronWing said:
Build it on a platform in the ocean.
Click to expand...
Trying to build a platform that big in the ocean would be an even bigger undertaking, no? At least when building upwards, they can stop at a certain height if the wobbling becomes too much to handle. But building the platform in the ocean would take far greater resources and time and the construction teams wouldn't be able to start building upwards until the platform is at least able to handle a few kilometers of height.

WHAT IF, we looked to Mother Nature for help and grew giant trees, some huge desalination plants to feed the trees with fresh water and then built platforms on top of such trees to support further tree plantations and so on?
 
igor_kavinski said:
Trying to build a platform that big in the ocean would be an even bigger undertaking, no? At least when building upwards, they can stop at a certain height if the wobbling becomes too much to handle. But building the platform in the ocean would take far greater resources and time and the construction teams wouldn't be able to start building upwards until the platform is at least able to handle a few kilometers of height.

WHAT IF, we looked to Mother Nature for help and grew giant trees, some huge desalination plants to feed the trees with fresh water and then built platforms on top of such trees to support further tree plantations and so on?
Click to expand...
No, no, no, it's turtles all the way down, not trees.
 
One approach I'm thinking that could work is a solid core, and then a fibrous material all around. Something that resists stretching. Build it in 100m sections, each section has the fibre material wrapped in various up down/cross cross patterns and always start at the very bottom so each one is encapsulated and the outer layer stretches from bottom to very top. My train of thought is the fibrous material would resist stretching, keeping the tower straight, and the core would resist crushing. The fibre would also resist the core from stretching as it tries to crush itself. I wonder what would be the limit of this using carbon fibre and steel as those are the two materials that come to mind that we have access to in reasonable amounts. You would also want to start the build process very deep under ground, like 1km or so, then backfill with concrete. In the end the tower is practically one big item vs a bunch bolted together.

I don't know if this could actually reach 1km, let alone 100 though...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top