Space Rope Trick Experiment Goes Awry

Tjeerd writes "An experiment that envisaged sending a parcel from space to Earth on a 30-kilometre tether fell short of its goal yesterday when the long fibre rope did not fully unwind, Russian Mission Control said. It was intended to deliver a spherical capsule, called Fotino, attached to the end of the tether back to Earth — a relatively simple and cheap technology that could be used in the future to retrieve bulkier cargoes from space.""

Actually...

[The_Isle_of_Mark]

I climbed up the rope and hid in my secret magic room until I felt rested. Then, I climbed down and did 10d4 damage to Fotino.

after a thourough scientific analysis ...

[Kristoph]

The reason for the problem wasn't immediately clear. "It could be that the tether got stuck," Lyndin said.

it's funny because it's true

[User 956]

An experiment that envisaged sending a parcel from space to Earth on a 30-kilometre tether fell short of its goal yesterday when the long fibre rope did not fully unwind

So that's how UPS plans on routing packages in the future. Perhaps they realize that the only way to achieve more damage per parcel is to actually drop them from outer space.

Delivery failed?

[RobTFirefly]

But, Planet Express is usually so reliable!

Close call

[Joe the Lesser]

This project hangs on a thread. I don't know if they'll be able to pull it off or knot. They have to make sure they don't get tied up on this setback. It really could unravel any day.

So much for...

[Delusion_]

...string theory.

Re:it's funny because it's true

[Psychor]

I think even dropping from outer space plus the burns from reentry would still damage a package less than the average UPS delivery. They set a pretty high bar, I'm not sure that mere science is enough to top it.

Story is not complete

[The-Bus]

The rope did not only not unwind fully, it started going back into the spacecraft. Representatives from the manufactuer of the rope-unwinding mechanism, Duncan YY Heavy Industries, were unavailable for comment.

The Proper Way to Do It

[Hoi Polloi]

If they bothered to do some research [wikipedia.org] they would've found out that the way to do this is to sit in a cloth, put on a turban, and play a flute in front of a basket with a rope coiled in it until it went up into the sky. Then you have a little kid climb up it.

Re:it's funny because it's true

[The Angry Mick]

So that's how UPS plans on routing packages in the future.

INCOMING!!!

Re:Is a 30km rope

[clambake]

One would have thought that to drop something 150km one would need a 150km rope?

You don't know anything about space, clearly, so just shut up. Leave this stuff to us experts.

(aside: Hey Bob, I have an idea why our space tether idea didn't work our right, get this: what if we used MORE than 30km of...)

Re:it's funny because it's true

[Valiss]

Are you implying that a fictional book did not acurately predict the future?

Re:it's funny because it's true

[JWtW]

I think you're on to something. With a quick slingshot around the sun, they could start offering 'UPS Yesterday Air'

Re:Space Elevators endanger EVERYONE.

[lewiscr]

> Seriously, get off this planet.

We're trying. STFU.

Re:Close call

[dr_labrat]

I'm a frayed knot.....

Weird reversal of space pen gag

[192939495969798999]

In Russia, they spend millions of dollars developing space cable to lower object from space. In America, we just wait for gravity to bring it down!

Re:after a thourough scientific analysis ...

[Anonymous Monkey]

I thought it was "ah, I see provlum, wodca lid stuck in gear," and then some kind of wise crack about moose and squirrel.

Re:it's funny because it's true

[monk.e.boy]

Perhaps they should employ my mum: Free physical and emotional damage.

They were actually pretty close

[Kazymyr]

Since 30000 feet = 9.14km...

Ah wait...

This isn't NASA.

Nothing to see here, move along.

Re:Space Elevators endanger EVERYONE.

[Fweeky]

Even sci-fi authors like Kim Stanley Robinson have included disaster scenarios when contemplating this technology, but irl nobody ever discusses the massive dangers.

Er, you don't think the possible dangers haven't been discussed, modeled, etc? Here, have a paper [mit.edu] I found in about 30 seconds. See page 10:

Below about 43 km, vterm is below 10 m/s. This confirms what was stated in Edwards (2000b, Sec. 10.9): the ribbon will reach the ground at a very low velocity, and there will be no impact damage due to the ribbon falling. ... [pg 11] For a 20 T elevator, with a breaking point of 130 GPa, the maximum tension that can be achieved anywhere along the ribbon before it breaks is 1 MN. The Fate of a Broken Space Elevator corresponding force is 1.1 kN (about 110 kg) at 1 m of height, ten times more at 100 m of height. A building (100 m) should be undisturbed by this force, and a person (1 m) may be trapped, but should not be hurt. ... [pg 13] After an intense deceleration phase the ribbon falls slowly to the ground at less than 1 m/s

In future, either learn to troll better, or learn to use Google. And perhaps update your mental model of "teh scientists!1!111!" to take into account the likelihood that they're rather less dense than you

Pushing rope

[flyingfsck]

Well, pushing rope is known to be a problem, while smoking rope is an acient passtime. When they finally did manage to talk to the satellite, it said: "Hey, dude...".

Sounds impressively dangerous

[dstone]

From TFA...

the tether only unfolded to a length of 8.5 kilometres after being released from the spacecraft orbiting around 300 kilometres above Earth ... Mission Control would try to calculate the capsule's orbit and determine when and where it would land ... the tether deployed Tuesday is half a millimetre thick and is made of Dyneema, which the ESA described as the world's strongest fibre

Heads up! Light, unbreakable, invisible rope flailing around...