I just had this crazy idea

[sanoj688]

Not at my PC right now so I cant easily check if it exists already, but what if we on earth had some sort of orbital crane with a super long rope that is extended kilometers down towards the surface. It might be more efficient to bring payloads to the hook with conventional airplanes... possibly.

Didnt know where else to post this but on KSP forums, lol

[drakesdoom]

If you are going to use a crane that reaches into the atmosphere it would not be a big deal to keep going to the ground. Good luck on getting any of it working.

[Kerbart]

Different from the space elevator which needs to be in geosynchronous orbit, this could be a lot lower. The downside of that is that your airplane needs to keep up with the, say, 7800 m/s velocity of your crane.

And that gets you back to the main problem of spaceflight in the first place: the problem is not going to space (altitude), it's staying there (velocity). Once you get that airplane up to speed to deliver cargo to the hook you might as well put it in orbit.

[Motokid600]

I'm sure it'd take too much energy to maintain the cranes altitude as it reels the payload in. Saying you got that far. Kerbarts right though your better off just firing rockets at that point. Also.. how would the hook react to moving at 7800m/s in atmosphere? The drag alone from that would pull the crane out of orbit.

[NASAFanboy]

Darn it, wrong thread.

Was mean't for another one.

Please delete this post.

[lajoswinkler]

So essentially a big ass tower with an elevator, going to 300 km height? And then what?

The payload reaches the height and then you remove it from the structure and it falls down like a rock.

Not to mention that such huge structures are impossible as they would be crushed and melted under their own weight.

[Holo]

So essentially a big ass tower with an elevator, going to 300 km height? And then what?

The payload reaches the height and then you remove it from the structure and it falls down like a rock.

Not to mention that such huge structures are impossible as they would be crushed and melted under their own weight.

The tower is so tall that due to centrifugal force the payload, when dropped, begins to orbit.

[lajoswinkler]

The tower is so tall that due to centrifugal force the payload, when dropped, begins to orbit.

We've already covered that with space elevators.

Towers are impossible. The structure needs to be tensile.

[Holo]

We've already covered that with space elevators.

Towers are impossible. The structure needs to be tensile.

Actually, it's a skyhook:

Or at least that's how I interpreted OP.