I really want a space station in the barycenter of Pluto or something. It would be as close to true neutral of gravity instead of the gravity negated by acceleration of mass that may or may not screw up gravity experiments

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 0 points 4 days ago

Except there are all the other planets swinging in the way, with their own gravitational influence.

[–] brown567@sh.itjust.works 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I think what you're looking for is a Lagrange point, specifically L1, where the gravitational pull from both bodies are equal, so they cancel out

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Fun fact, we can theoretically use that to build a space elevator on the moon. Last I checked, Nylon was strong enough to build the needed cables

[–] brown567@sh.itjust.works 0 points 4 days ago

There are a few more problems than material strength

For one, the moon isn't geostationary, and my napkin math says its ground track probably progresses at over 1000 kilometers per hour. Not to mention the inclination of the moon's orbit (about 5°) and the obliquity of earth's axis (about 23°) mean the track wouldn't be a single track around earth, but instead would wander anywhere between the 28°N/S latitude lines over the course of the year