Space stations

[Jeff M. Hopper]

Originally posted by Paraquat Johnson:
The game Cyberpunk 2020 has two supplements, Deep Space, and (I think) Near Orbit, which have plans and other info for space stations.

I've got them both and the plans are more sketches then anything really usable as deckplans, I'm afraid.

 

[Jeff M. Hopper]

Originally posted by Piper:
What if only some of the thrusters misfired? It might throw the center of rotation off so that the gravity varies as the station rotates. It also adds the possibility of damaging the station due to stress on the ring; deformed or buckled hallways, breaches and so on.

This sounds like an Irwin Allen movie because it could very well shatter the station.
Bogus Broadcasting's Movie of the Week is SPINQUAKE! Tune in tonight!

On a more serious note, there is abook by TA Heppenheimer (sp?) called 'Colonies in Space'. It is out of print by about 20 years, but it provides a great overview of space colonization. If you can find it, I highly recommend it.

 

[Uncle Bob]

NASA has Space Settlements: A Design Study on-line. 1977 blueprint for a toroidal L5 station with a population of 10,000. Not a deckplan, not even a streetmap, but everything you need to build your own.

I might alsol suggest Arthr C. Clark's Islands in the Sky and George Smiths Venus Equilateral for SF source material.

 

[mike wightman]

The High Frontier by Gerald K. O'Neil is worth reading too.

 

[parmasson]

From the 1977 NASA report . . .
"The space shuttle is to be the principal U.S. launch vehicle for the 1980s...However for space colonization applications, the shuttle has low payload per launch and requires too many flights with excessive launch costs per kg"

Glad to know that by 2000 we will have moved beyond that to something. . .oh wait.

 

[parmasson]

I want my HePlaR drive. We need to move up a tech level. We don't want to be embarrassed when the Vilani get here.

 

[Uncle Bob]

VASIMR is as close as you're getting in this world. Google "VASIMR".

But I can't take HePlaR seriously. A reaction drive that doesn't use reaction mass is an abomination, a piece of fantasy like tarot reading and spell casting. At least I can justify the CT maneuver drive by Mach's Principle.

HePlaR and "thrust plates" are two big reasons why I can't stand MT.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

HEPlaR was TNE, and it does use reaction mass.

Thruster plates are an explanation of CT m-drives.