this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2024
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Yeah, there must be some point on the arc that gets you back to some point on Earth
Several. Not getting on the skyhook sends you straight down, getting off at the top puts you into a solar orbit (escape velocity from Earth is ~11km/s, local escape velocity from Sol is ~42km/s, and we end up with 15km/s or so). In between releases should somehow do in between things.
You also need to have a skyhook in sync at the destination as you land, though, and they need to switch out between scheduled flights to keep a reasonable momentum, so it gets complicated. I realised after writing this you probably want to be able to survivably "crash land" at orbital speed if you miss the tether coming down, so that adds weight as well.
I'd still guess it's viable.