Space Colonization

[GamePlayer]

Great article. We should be ashamed that some 16 year old has to tell us how to build a proper space colony Of course, I just have to say I told ya so, so I might as well get it over with:

“You've got to go low-tech wherever you can,” he said. “The idea is to use existing technology.”

If there's one thing I've been repeating over and over as long as I can remember (to anyone who will listen) is that space colonization isn't some ridiculous dream that requires science fiction "magic." We don't need transporters, warp drives, gravity control or lightsabers to colonize space. Space colonization is possible with the technology we have right now. If there's one thing I would advocate teaching our children in school it would be overcoming the myths about space colonization.

Anyway, done ranting for now

[cmsahe]

Nice design, it looks like a Guild Heighliner. Who said it? I think it was Carl Sagan, we must colonize other worlds because "We can't have all the eggs in the same basket."

I have been dreaming for decades now with that idea of carving, in the inside, the moons of Mars to turn them into spaceships.

Couldn't find a topic on this yet, so figure we need one of these to discuss this concept that I think most of us here feel is necessary as soon as possible.

to start it off, here's a story about a 16 year old in Ontario who won NASA's space colonization design contest this year. this kid's pretty much already got a job at NASA

[SandChigger]

Well, if my playah is done ranting, I'll start...

But first, NEATO!!!

OK, ahem:

Toronto teen's intergalactic Canada ... a 1.6-kilometre-high, one-kilometre-wide intergalactic structure ... would be a kind of intergalactic Canada.

What does this tell us? That the writer is a fucking moron.

intergalactic |ˌintərgəˈlaktik|
adjective
of, relating to, or situated between two or more galaxies : intergalactic gas.

Try interplanetary or orbital or something else, next time. Sheesh.

My grad students this morning wanted to talk about H1N1. I brought up the movie 12 Monkeys and mentioned how lucky we've been that something really nasty like AIDS or Ebola hasn't become airborn (yet) and how an event of that sort would basically end us.

And when I had them looking really downcast, I segued into a plug for space colonization!

[Omphalos]

You should have Bob do a remote lesson about Mars.

[SandChigger]

Remote hell. The LOON would probably do it LIVE FROM THE MARTIAN SURFACE.




(Actually, since "loon" comes from "lunatic" and has to do with the Moon, what would you call a crazy Martian? Besides "Bob", I mean.)

[Tleszer]

Interesting article. I do have to disagree with GP on one issue, though. Lightsabers are a must.

And Chig, about that whole intergalactic business, maybe the writer isn't a moron. Maybe he's just a fan of KJA's writing style. Oh, wait, never mind. I forget sometimes. Moron and KJA's writing go hand-in-hand.

[SadisticCynic]

Mr. Yam also decided that his colony would have artificial gravity, produced by thrusters that spin the entire colony.

How does the colony spinning produce artificial gravity (presumably some force as a replacement of gravity due to gravitational mass)?

I first thought of centripetal force, but that would only act of the colony, not the people present, until they are plastered against the wall.

Unless you make the 'wall' the floor...

[SandChigger]

OK ... where do you want it, in the heart or in the head? Personally, I'd go for the heart, because maybe it'll give you a chance for internal monologue in italics: Oh my God, who knew the bug had a concealed maula pistol ... and would be such a good shot? Whoa ... look at that arterial spray ... kewl. Uh oh ... everything's turning gray and



The pop-up illustration with the article is a bit misleading. The "floor" of the units will be facing outward from the center of the cylinder. When the station is spun on its axis, centrifugal force will cause objects to behave as though in a gravitational field with "up" towards the center of the station and "down" away from it. While it's true that the colony/station is what's moving, since the units will be filled with air, the force will be transmitted to all objects inside. On second thought, "plastered against the wall" is about right, actually.

[inhuien]

Centrifugal force aside for the moment, would you get arterial spray from a heart shot?

[SandChigger]

Well, considering that the heart is not an artery, NO.

But my universe remains magical, and if I say arterial spray from the heart, people fall over gushing.

[SandRider]

I swear to g-d, one of the biggest mistakes I ever made in my life
was giving my oldest boy a book in the 70s called
"You Too Will Live In Space" - it was a fairly hip, factually based
illustrated kid's book, and this was about the time of the last Apollo
moon mission, maybe the Apollo-Soyuz thing.

anyway, he got real excited about it. (he actually turned me on
to Freeman J. Dyson, showing me an article in Omni magazine
in the late 70s, when he was in junior high)

so despite becoming a worthless asshole later in life, the boy
had some potential. But he was also a little too much of a
dreamer, and a little too smart. He came to the conclusion,
around 84, I think, that space colonization was simply not going
to happen in his lifetime. The time-lines and decisions the governments
of the world were making didn't make sense. He got disillusioned and
pissed off and cynical. "Fuck NASA" became a common phrase around
the house.

and he was right, I'd told him that. The largest mistake was made in the
sixties, when Chuck Yeager and the Air Force Space Command wasn't tasked
with putting a station on the moon. When the monkey-in-a-can pushed out
the X-plane program. (re: the "Crew Exploration Vehicle" - monkey-ina-can redux)

the last real conversation I had with him about this (and a lot of other things)
was in 86 when the Challenger came down. "There's goes my ride" he said.
He knew that incident would set back the shuttle program years.

Space colonization is a dead topic for me.
We're not going to get serious about it until this little bio-sphere is damn near dead,
and then, the only people going to "Live In Space" will be the military & the rich.

and fuck them ....

[Tleszer]

BB, I'm surprised at you. You should be ashamed of yourself.

[GamePlayer]

and fuck them ....

Wow, that's a lot of venom running through those veins.

I swear to g-d, one of the biggest mistakes I ever made in my life
was giving my oldest boy ... hip... he got real excited about it. he actually turned me on...in the asshole... He came ... I ...Fuck ...him ...in the...can

dude that's just wrong

Wow, that's a lot of disturbing thoughts running through your brain!

[DuneFishUK]

The pop-up illustration with the article is a bit misleading. The "floor" of the units will be facing outward from the center of the cylinder. When the station is spun on its axis, centrifugal force will cause objects to behave as though in a gravitational field with "up" towards the center of the station and "down" away from it. While it's true that the colony/station is what's moving, since the units will be filled with air, the force will be transmitted to all objects inside. On second thought, "plastered against the wall" is about right, actually.

SCy was right - it is centripetal force. As you spin you'd always want to in a straight line, but the floor would be pushing you in as the colony spins.

[SandRider]

I don't know about venom .....

I hate the rich & the military that bullies & plunders
other countries for their benefit.

neither group has my interest in mind, and neither
protects my freedom or property ... both are threats
to my way of life.

so, yeah, space colonization for the military & the rich, fuck that ...

[SadisticCynic]

The pop-up illustration with the article is a bit misleading. The "floor" of the units will be facing outward from the center of the cylinder. When the station is spun on its axis, centrifugal force will cause objects to behave as though in a gravitational field with "up" towards the center of the station and "down" away from it. While it's true that the colony/station is what's moving, since the units will be filled with air, the force will be transmitted to all objects inside. On second thought, "plastered against the wall" is about right, actually.

SCy was right - it is centripetal force. As you spin you'd always want to in a straight line, but the floor would be pushing you in as the colony spins.

[SandChigger]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_gravity

A rotating spacecraft will produce the feeling of gravity on its inside hull. The rotation drives any object inside the spacecraft toward the hull, thereby giving the appearance of a gravitational pull directed outward. Often referred to as a centrifugal force, the "pull" is actually a manifestation of the objects inside the spacecraft attempting to travel in a straight line due to inertia. The spacecraft's hull provides the centripetal force required for the objects to travel in a circle (if they continued in a straight line, they would leave the spacecraft's confines). Thus, the gravity felt by the objects is simply the reaction force of the object on the hull reacting to the centripetal force of the hull on the object, in accordance with Newton's Third Law.

Right maybe in lexical choice. But do reread the original post I responded to.

[DuneFishUK]

I was just responding to the curiously bolded pseudoforce - the rest was cock-on.