Re: O'Neill habitat spin axis

From: John Savard (jsavard_at_excxn.aNOSPAMb.cdn.invalid.retro.com)
Date: 09/04/04 

Date: Sat, 04 Sep 2004 23:37:52 +0000 (GMT)
To: sci-space-tech@moderators.isc.org

On 31 Aug 2004 11:17:49 -0700, wbogen@visteon.com (Bill Bogen) wrote, in
part:

>I thought that the two cylinders were parallel, there being no need
>for a net angular momentum. I belive your last statement is correct,
>though, since such a force arrangement would cause both cylinders to
>precess so as to keep one end pointed at the Sun.

I'm in favor of having lots of angular momentum, and a fixed axis
perpendicular to the habitat's orbit. A light mirror can be rotated to
bring sunlight into the colony.

Such a design works well with radiation shielding as well...

http://home.ecn.ab.ca/~jsavard/science/spaint.htm

shows a design I've proposed - borrowing much from previous designs
proposed, of course - in reaction to a claim that cosmic rays make an
O'Neill habitat impossible - because by the time you have enough
shielding to stop regular radiation, then you have too much dangerous
secondary radiation caused by cosmic rays.

Well, since life is possible on Earth, if you *just keep piling on the
shielding*, you will get to a point where even the cosmic rays are
stopped - and I illustrate a design that lets you do just that.

And it avoids use of consumables to move the colony around as well.

John Savard
http://home.ecn.ab.ca/~jsavard/index.html

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