i asked my physicist buddy to explain to me why this wouldn't work. he actually couldn't come up with a reason. granted he's just a student. can you?

in case the picture isn't clear to you, here's the idea.

you take a tube and you put one end of the tube, the exit, into deep space, where there is a vacuum. the other end, the entry, you simply leave on the surface of a planet with an atmosphere. congratulations, you've created a perpetual vacuum cleaner which will vent atmosphere into space until there is no atmosphere left to vent. in the meantime, you put some generators inside the tube which will use the flowing atmosphere to generate power.