MovieChat Forums > Sky Line (2015) Discussion > Charles Sheffield not mentioned?

Charles Sheffield not mentioned?

posted 8 years ago by bradknopf
3 replies | jump to latest

Charles Sheffield, a scientist and sci fi writer, ALSO published a novel about the building of a space elevator, The Web Between The Worlds, about the same time that A.C. Clarke published "Fountains". I've watched most of this movie and was disappointed to see no mention of Sheffield.

I found Sheffield's book a bit more entertaining, as he went into detail about the fabrication of the "tether" in space, and the subsequent flyby of the 100,000 km object and the dramatic "one shot" anchoring of it to Earth.

From Wikipedia -

Charles A. Sheffield (25 June 1935 – 2 November 2002)[1] was an English-born mathematician, physicist and science fiction writer who served as a President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and of the American Astronautical Society.[2]

His novel The Web Between the Worlds, featuring the construction of a space elevator, was published almost simultaneously with Arthur C. Clarke's novel on the subject, The Fountains of Paradise, a coincidence that amused them both.

Sheffield served as Chief Scientist of Earth Satellite Corporation, a company that processed remote sensing satellite data. The association gave rise to many technical papers and two popular non-fiction books, Earthwatch and Man on Earth, both collections of false-colour and enhanced images of Earth from space.

He won the Nebula and Hugo awards for his novelette "Georgia on My Mind" and the 1992 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel for his novel Brother to Dragons.

Sheffield was Toastmaster at BucConeer, the 1998 World Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore.

Before he died, he was writing a column for the Baen Books web site; his last column concerned the discovery of the brain tumour that led to his death.

You're forgetting one thing- I just started using laser cats again!

[–] sooperklew 8 years ago

Seems kind of like an impractical idea. Sure everything works great except for the one part that's impossible: getting a strong enough tether.

I'm a little unsure how all the physics work when you're pulling on a satelite in geosynchronous orbit. I was thinking you would pull it back to earth, but then its the velocity of the satelite that keeps it in the orbit. As long as it didn't lose speed it would be fine? Kind of a weird concept.

[–] bradknopf 7 years ago

Hi
The thing about the space elevator is that you have to have additional length that extends out past the geostationary point to counter the "pull" you mentioned.

The main mass of whatever station you build at the geostationary point is fixed relative to the Earth, but the counterbalance portion that extends out past the station is moving faster than it normally would, providing tension in the tether.

One useful feature of that is that by sending a ship to the end of the tether you can launch it merely by "letting go" at the point of the orbit when you are aimed in the direction you want to travel, and you have a free boost to escape velocity.

As far as the impracticality of building a tether strong enough- like most sci fi stories, they relied on the idea that future discoveries would provide breakthroughs, and knowing this the author can "invent" an imaginary substance to stand in for some future invention. Today we are hearing about Graphene, which a lot of work in focused on that will make an insanely strong material that may well be what is needed to construct a practical space elevator tether.

In the book, Sheffield's method of anchoring the tether was a bit dramatic, as an accident during the landing of the earthbound end could have created a global disaster. Still, fabricating the entire tether in a single continuous piece out in space, using robot refineries based on mineral-rich asteroids, does have some practical basis- as in, if you build the tether on Earth, how do you lift it, or join the sections together in a manner strong enough to survive the stress?

You're forgetting one thing- I just started using laser cats again!

[–] jonnyleahan 7 years ago

Thanks for the info, Brad. This is great information to know! There was so much we wanted to include in the film that just didn't make it. I'm so glad you were able to watch the film... and you should check out the end!