Climber Elevator Simulation

Masses climb up tether and release themselves just before reaching counterweight.

Climbers start climbing at maximum radial velocity required, continue climbing, and are released into free orbit just before reaching the counterweight. Climbers move at a constant speed up a massless tether, simply by being moved along it, taking into account tether strain.

To start, move cursor over applet, and then move cursor off applet. To stop move cursor over applet.

<*-- DT to be multiplied by 1e-3 ---*> <*-- planet mass to be multiplied by 10E20 ---*> <*-- spring constant to be multiplied by 1E-3 ---*> <*-- event time 0 means no event ---*>

TOWER_TYPE: 0 = static tower, 1 = Coriolis push static tower, 2 = lift engine elevator, 3 = climber elevator, 4 = siphon.

PLANET_MASS: the planet mass (m). The parameter is multiplied by 10^20.

PLANET_RADIUS: the planet radius (m).

PLANET_PERIOD: the planet rotation period (s).

BODY_MASS: mass of bodies in tower (Kg).

RADIAL_VMAX: maximum radial velocity of climbing masses. (m/s)

COUNTERWEIGHT: mass of counterweight. If no counterweight, top mass is set equal to mass of bodies in tower (kg).

TIE_L0: unstretched length of ties between bodies in tower (m)

TIE_LMAX: maximum (breaking) length of ties.

TIE_K: Tie spring constant.

TOWER_RADIUS: radial distance of topmost mass from planet (m).

MAX_TOWER_RADIUS: (siphon only) radial distance at which masses are released from siphon.

NBODIES: the number of masses in the tower. e.g. a 230,000 km tower with 1000 km ties will need 230 or more masses. This number is used to minimize the number of masses the code processes.

DELTA_T: time interval DT (ms) to use. If negative, the number represents the maximum distance (m) for any body to move, and results in a variable DT

START_DELAY: delay in seconds (in simulation model) before climbers/ lifengine start operation.

EVENT_TIME: time in seconds (in simulation model) before an event occurs. 0 = no event.

EVENT_NUM: event to happen at event time. 1 = shatter tower by breaking all ties, 2 is release tower at base by breaking lowest tie. 3 is break a particular tie number given by EVENT_PARAM1 (top mass is mass 1, and tie below it is tie 1, and so on downwards. 4 is stop climbers, lift engine.

EVENT_PARAM1: event parameter 1

EVENT_PARAM2: event parameter 2

VIEW: View required. 0 is South pole view with tower radial line held in one position (no rotation), 1 is South pole view with rotation. 3 = view counterweight motion about tower radial line. 4 is same as 1, but with tower angle and tension shown graphically at bottom of display