tori

From: Al Globus [mailto:aglobus@...]

There's a problem with tori I hadn't thought of: to minimize shielding mass
you
need to wrap the spokes in shielding.

Do we really? I understand that the 6-ft thickness requirement is what's
needed to make a lifetime spent in the environment safe. Nobody would be
living inside the spokes. People would only spend a few minutes passing
through a couple of times a day, even assuming their job was at the hub.

I would leave them unshielded; I think this was the intention of the
Stanford Study as well. I do know that putting inadequate shielding on the
spokes would actually make them more hazardous than no shielding at all.

Alternately, shielding the elevators would take a lot less mass than
shielding the spokes.

Of
course, you could have the torus spin inside a stationary cylindrical
shielding
mass, but then, why not make a thin cylinder?

True. I don't see a problem with the idea of a bicycle-tire-shaped shield,
chevron shields in the windows, and unshielded spokes.

Regards,

Mike Combs

From:
Al Globus [mailto:aglobus@...]
There's a problem with tori I hadn't thought of: to minimize shielding mass you
need to wrap the spokes in shielding.

Do we really? I understand that the 6-ft thickness requirement is what's needed to make a lifetime spent in the environment safe. Nobody would be living inside the spokes. People would only spend a few minutes passing through a couple of times a day, even assuming their job was at the hub.

I would leave them unshielded; I think this was the intention of the Stanford Study as well. I do know that putting inadequate shielding on the spokes would actually make them more hazardous than no shielding at all.

Alternately, shielding the elevators would take a lot less mass than shielding the spokes.
Of
course, you could have the torus spin inside a stationary cylindrical shielding
mass, but then, why not make a thin cylinder?

True. I don't see a problem with the idea of a bicycle-tire-shaped shield, chevron shields in the windows, and unshielded spokes.

Regards,
Mike Combs