[ExI] Space Colony Design (Was: Greener Urban Environment)

[SR Ballard]

On Tue, May 23, 2017 at 2:30 AM, Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com> wrote:

>perhaps another habitat like this linked to the first.
> Second one counter-rotates (the hub that links them together allows
> for this while keeping an airtight seal), then build the rest in
> counter-rotating pairs: third & fourth built at the same time, then
> fifth & sixth, and so on, all linked together in one large structure
> that can grow to house millions, perhaps eventually billions.  (Of
> course, not just all in one single line; perhaps each unit would form
> an edge of tessellating hexagons.)

I have serious misgivings about created a completely linked structure
that is counter rotating. I think it would be better to think of each
section sort of the way Tokyo divides the city into wards, or London &
NYC have Burroughs. Wouldn't it be better to fuse them together
permanently have a limited point of transfer (true airlocks) between
the two parts (normally open) that would snap shut automatically if
they detected a change in air pressure? Rightly or wrongly, I see
human habitations that stay in space as balloons almost. Humans tend
to be quite fragile.


> ...but I digress.  Imagine how you would lay out such a colony - the
> first one, only 100 m wide, just enough space for a few thousand
> people.  You get maybe a hundred people at first; only if you make it
> sufficiently attractive will it fill up enough to justify (and afford,
> from taxes/rent/etc.) building more.  How would you do it?

That's going to take even more noodling than previously because I was
going to make use of underground space for some parts of life. I think
I'll continue with the Earth city first, then this space city.