Vorl Bek <[email protected]> wrote: > > How do you stop meteorites from hitting the ribbons? >
You cannot stop them. See E&W section 10.2. You have to make the ribbon survive the impact with a hole. In other words, you have to make it stronger than needed for the weight of the climber, and shaped wide and thin, so that a single impact is extremely unlikely to cut it enough to break it. Tests with carbon fiber material show that with an extreme angle and a grazing hit, the ribbons would survive remarkably well. I do not think they are exactly flat; I think they curl somewhat, so even if the meteor struck at one edge it would not cut straight through. It would be extremely unlikely to sever the ribbon. The danger comes from object larger than 1 cm. All of the space junk of this size has been mapped, and can be avoided or eventually eliminated. Meteors of this size will only strike ribbons once every few decades. Eventually the ribbons will wear out from the pinch climber and from small holes made by meteors and space junk. A worn-out ribbon will have to be replaced. This is analogous to resurfacing a road with new asphalt. Since there will be other ribbons, one of them can be used to haul up a new replacement ribbon, so the cost will be minimal. Space junk is a much bigger problem than meteors. See section 10.3. Space junk occurs between 500 and 1700 km. The ribbon would be twice as wide in this section, so that holes make less difference. The increase in ribbon mass would be 0.65% and the critical meteor size would increase to around 3 cm, which is extremely rare, and much easier to detect, so you can move the ribbon out of the way. - Jed
