coriolis bicycle question

On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 2:56 PM, Combs, Mike wrote:
> From: Russell Wallace
>
> > Is there a reason for the low density? It's low in today's spacecraft
> > because that lets a few more kilograms of weight be shaved from the
> > hull, but that incentive wouldn't apply to a habitat, would it?
>
> It would apply in spades to large habitats where we would measure the
> hull not in square meters but in square kilometers.
>
> Although in this case the weight would be less the issue than the
> expense of construction.

Actually you're right, it would. You need a few tons/m^2 for radiation
shielding anyway, but much of that could be machinery, water reserves,
coolant pipes and suchlike, not all of it need be the load-bearing
shell. So if the atmosphere is 1 bar, that's 10 tons/m^2 of load on
top of everything else; it bumps up the required shell thickness quite
substantially. So yeah, there is an incentive to reduce the air
pressure as much as you can reasonably get away with.