scytale@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
I also have this incredibly stupid idea to build a very long pipe that goes all the way outside earth’s gravity pull, then launch all the garbage through it with a mechanism similar to a railgun. It doesn’t have to be thrown directly at the sun, just enough to launch stuff out of orbit.
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
There is no such thing as “outside earth’s gravity pull”. You can compensate with “centrifugal” force but you’ll need to position the point of mass in geostationary orbit and hang the rest of the structure off it (idea known as space elevator). However, there is no material whose tensile strength will support its own weight at this length. Steel cables max out at a few hundred meters at surface gravity.