[Space] 'Space Opera' Setting

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by nick012000

You wouldn't. C goes into making carbon nanotubes; O2 goes into air bubbles. ;)

Carbon and pure oxygen burn very easily. Almost anything else and pure oxygen does too.

Beanstalks just don't work on non-rotating planets. You build your "orbital" access point at a place where the orbit period is the same as the planet's rotation.

For Venus this is 243 days. A 243 day orbit is beyond the limits of carbon nanotubes. A beanstalk to a floating station in a 4 day orbit probalby is too.

You also need to consider the trip length. On a proposed Earth beanstalk the trip from the surface to orbit is estimated at requiring 3 days. Even that isn't real attractive for passengers. Longer is less attractive.

I do want to apologize to the OP for not posting anything helpful but I suppose I don't understand what he's trying to do.

"Space Opera" to me means spaceships that go "Whoosh!" and "Zoom!" and lasergun fights that are full of "Zap! Zap! Zap!".

"Alistair Reynolds" means nothing to me but this doesn't really sound like a "Zap! Zap!" setting.