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Skyhook (structure)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Skyhook (disambiguation).
Skyhooks are hypothetical structures used for transporting material to and from a planet's surface into orbit, continuously supporting it rather than using rockets, catapults or hypothetical anti-gravity effects. Smaller skyhooks include hypersonic skyhooks, rotating cables in lower orbits whose ends dip repeatedly down close to the planet's surface to snag payloads and lift them up. Large rotating tethers can also be used far from a planet's surface to transfer momentum to and from payloads, changing their orbits without the expenditure of reaction mass.
The technique of hooking cargo on the ground or in the air with a capturing aircraft has been successfully used by the U.S. Air Force in the Fulton surface-to-air recovery system. An extension of this technique is to use hypersonic aircraft and space tethers reaching into Earth's atmosphere (skyhooks) with a high tip speed in the upper atmosphere.[1]
See tether propulsion for more details on various types of skyhooks.
A form of hard-structure subsonic skyhook was constructed during the events of Jack McDevitt's novel Deepsix.
Additionally, in the anime Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040, the three main protagonists arrive at the series's climactic battle with Galatea in Earth orbit by means of commandeering a skyhook transit system.
In another anime, Battle Angel Alita skyhooks are used to transport just about everything including preserved human body parts from the Scrapyard to Tiphares.
In the Star Wars expanded universe, Skyhooks are common above Coruscant. They are frequently private retreats owned by corporations or wealthy individuals.
The planet of Tara K. Harper's Grey Ones series features a number of skyhook stations. The tethers are apparently no longer functioning, but large terminal structures still exist. They are used as a plot device, as ferrous weapons are impossible to use near the structures due to their intense magnetic fields.