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Author
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Topic: Rotating ring space station
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johntosullivan
Member Posts: 162
From: Cork, Cork, Ireland
Registered: Oct 2005
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posted 05-10-2006 06:44 AM
   
Has anyone (any space agency) seriously considered building a space station like those in the old sci-fi movies , e.g. 2001?
I thought the rotation was to provide some artificial gravity.
Was it not practical, too expensive?
John |
DavidH
Member Posts: 1217
From: Huntsville, AL, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted 05-10-2006 09:43 AM
Without getting into the logistics issues, one of the bigger issues is that one of the biggest reasons to spend time in LEO is for microgravity research, so artificial gravity would defeat the purpose.And if I were going to go stay in a space hotel like in 2001, I would be extremely disappointed if I were in 1G the whole time. ------------------
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"America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow." - Commander Eugene Cernan, Apollo 17 Mission, 11 December 1972 |
spaceuk
Member Posts: 2113
From: Staffs, UK
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 05-10-2006 12:00 PM
I can't remember the exact name of it - off hand - but a Japanese group did put forward some plans that had a circular rotating space hotel/station located at one end of a very long support 'truss'. They displayed charts,photos and a small model of it at UK Farnborough Air Show many years ago together with their version of the 'Orient Express' hypersonic craft to ferry passengers to the 'orbiting hotel'Didn't the ET-to-orbit guys - very early on - suggest joing several ET tanks in orbit to form a small 'octagonal-type' station ? Although not quite the Colliers-mag design type of space wheel, the L-5 colonies (settlements) that were proposed in mid 70's had the 'living surface' on the inside surface of huge cylinders in most designs. There was the mid 70's Bernal sphere L5 space colony,also, which you might (?) class as a space wheel ? A lot of these early 70's proposals (both for L-5 and for Skylab follow-ons) had a lot of technical work injected into them - even if somewhat esoteric for their day. Some of the huge truss-formed structures put forward in early 70's for NASA by teams like Boeing,Rockwell,Grumman for construction by STS crews to form 'antenna farms' or solar power generators could have formed the basis for large space stations - maybe a wheel form (?). But in the end - through Alpha and Freedom - we ended with ISS instead !!
Phill
spaceuk
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