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Moon power, free electricity

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gary350

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I have an idea the moon can be used to generate electricity. Build a railroad track all the way around the earth. The train on the track has generators on every wheel. Screw an eye bolt into the moon then connect the moon to the train with a long cable. The moon will pull the train that will generate electricity to the rails. All the houses on earth will be connected to the rails to get free electricity. Moon & Earth both travel the same direction the speed difference between the 2 planets is 37 mph maintenance workers can get on/off the train by truck and old/new RR cars can be switched on/off the train to side tracks easy.

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April Fools Day to you too!
It will be cheaper if you pulled the train around the world.
 
I have an idea the moon can be used to generate electricity. Build a railroad track all the way around the earth. The train on the track has generators on every wheel. Screw an eye bolt into the moon then connect the moon to the train with a long cable. The moon will pull the train that will generate electricity to the rails. All the houses on earth will be connected to the rails to get free electricity. Moon & Earth both travel the same direction the speed difference between the 2 planets is 37 mph maintenance workers can get on/off the train by truck and old/new RR cars can be switched on/off the train to side tracks easy.

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Hi,

First and foremost you'd have to analyze the rotational effects it would have on both the Earth and the Moon. If you take energy out of the moon you cause problems, if you take energy out of the earth you cause problems. That would mean either the moon moves away faster or it starts to move closer, either of which can upset weather systems by so much that it could destroy much of life on earth in an unreasonable amount of time.

Second, there are various factors that make the engineering feat nearly impossible:
1. The cable would be ten times as long as the circumference of the earth which works out to some 250 thousand miles. If for any reason the cable broke, it would wreck havoc on the structures on the earth such as buildings as part of it fell back to the earth's surface.
2. The variations in the earth's curvature in different areas would mean the cable would be pulled at different rates which would put a huge strain on the cable. The earth's precession would cause a similar problem.
3. The track would have to cross oceans, possibly large distances of open water.

So it's not as straightforward as a child's toy that spins around just for the fun of it. It's a very complicated and elaborate idea the worst part of which is the failure modes.
 
Or alternatively, we could turn this into a French lesson...

and the French expression of the day is "déja vu"

I was thinking the same thing. :eek:

Also, expanding on the rough math I did in that thread there is another problem. The ~4.5 million railway locomotives needed if placed end to end would circle the equator just over 2 and a half times meaning if standard gauge railway was used it would require a multitude of parallel tracks, not just one set. :oops:
 
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We already extract energy from the earth's rotation and the moon's gravity by using generators powered from the daily tide.
 
I believe it was the tidal pull of the earth on the moon that locked the moon's rotation to face us.
 
Just a wandering thought, would not such a cable cause potential radiation issues as it would be an overgrown antenna, and be interlinked between two different gravimetric masses (Energy Density)? Or am I just thinking wrong?

....Or catching an large meteor/space debris for a not so fun joy ride as has not yet been mentioned, or breaking and dragging with use of the cable latching onto said object and dragging into earth or moon for one ....

Just some small thoughts.
 
Hi,

There are just too many things to consider so i dont think it could be done.

Otherwise we could hook up some pulleys and levers to launch spacecraft into outer orbit :)
Or just have them climb up the cable :)
 
This is fascinating stuff guys !

Of course, many of the troublesome variables could be managed by using the wind farms .. .. for example, turning all of the world's propellers in a uniform direction could be an ideal method of increasing or reducing resistance to rotational pull or drag.

An entirely different method that would work even better would be to put George Clooney in a pair of running shoes, attached him to the train and stand him about 10ft in front of my Mother in Law ! :D

S

 
For practical guidance, I suggest Larry Niven's Ring World, and possibly Ring World Engineers.
 
Well at first I was going to ridicule the idea, then I thought about it. Actually you might just have found a use for HS2!!
 
I see a problem: sooner or later something is going to happen to cause one or more wheels on the train to jam. With the train/generator stopped in its tracks, the moon will wrap the cable around and around the planet, getting closer and closer, until it finally crashes to Earth. The effect on property values could be substantial.
 
I see a problem: sooner or later something is going to happen to cause one or more wheels on the train to jam. With the train/generator stopped in its tracks, the moon will wrap the cable around and around the planet, getting closer and closer, until it finally crashes to Earth. The effect on property values could be substantial.
Nah when the train gets to the UK it will find the wrong kind of leaves on the track! I kid you not

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uk...ong-sort-of-leaves-hit-train-punctuality.html

only in the UK..........
 
An engineer was saying that even different planets have different level of potential difference. It means all we need to do is- hookup a wire into the moon (or another planet) from the earth. Potential difference between 'Earth' wire and 'Moon' wire maybe stable source of free energy. :)
 
An engineer was saying that even different planets have different level of potential difference. It means all we need to do is- hookup a wire into the moon (or another planet) from the earth. Potential difference between 'Earth' wire and 'Moon' wire maybe stable source of free energy. :)
So what you going to use for Neutral? and why do you need a earth connection?
 
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