Chain Flinger

(nealstephenson.substack.com)

29 points | by roomey 5 days ago

4 comments

  • thom 19 minutes ago
    I got my youngest a ZipString Aracna for Christmas (entirely driven by a tiny cameo in the film Weapons). It is rare that a toy for kids feels magical, but it's been a real hit over the holidays.
  • jaggederest 3 hours ago
    Doesn't even need to be an actual chain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_fountain
    • skybrian 1 hour ago
      It's like you keep shooting ammo upward at it and it catches it and throws it down again, hard.
  • JKCalhoun 2 hours ago
    Related (Steve Mould has been fascinated with the centripetal physics of the chain): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcqX4UMXNKEdNBKABT3ZF...
    • kevin_thibedeau 1 hour ago
      This is essentially a powered Mould effect in place of using gravity.
  • lukebechtel 3 hours ago
    The chain robot subplot of Seveneves makes a lot more sense now :)
    • FrameworkFred 1 hour ago
      the chain link tech in Seveneves was wild.

      as a nearly perfectly uninformed occasional consumer of space-related articles, I can say it makes a lot of sense (to me) why we'd use something like that to move things around the solar system.