Questions about the Coriolis Effect

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "brooksn" wrote:
>
> I'm sure some work can be done prior to a station, but the easiest way
is to have two habitats connected by a tether rotating at different
rates and diameters in orbit. (While you do other work obviously.) Then
we will actually have the data before we build a torus or other large
structure.
>
> Brooks
>
On this thought, it seems very possible that the first "space hotels"
and, perhaps, "construction camps" for solar power satellites may be
based on Bigelow's spacehab design. These expandable structures are good
for relatively short-duration LEO occupancy similar to the ISS, since
they, like the ISS, lack significant radiation shielding.

Given the discomfort and health effect zero-g stays may have on guests,
I suspect that Bigelow will very quickly want to try a tethered
double-habitat arrangement. I don't think very many high rollers will be
eager to put up with stuffed up heads, nausea, and excessive flatulence
just for the bragging rights of having vacationed in space.

A tethered arrangement for spacehabs brings with it a whole new level of
complexity. Ingress and egress from the spacehabs would presumably be
made by means of an air lock on the tethered "end" of the spacehab. Some
means of transport to the central hub would be needed unless the
occupants are just going to EVA and "climb" their way up to the hub
using the tether as a guide rope (probably not a good idea for
tourists).

The only feasible way of docking would be for the space transport to
rotate itself in sync with a docking port on the axis of the central
hub. This would require the space transport's docking port to be located
at the center of mass of the transport (probably either a ventral or
dorsal arrangement).

Aside from these complications, there's the matter of maintaining the
mass balance between the two habitats so that the central hub and the
center of rotation coincide. This requirement, the need to conserve
angular momentum and the safety of redundancy will probably mean that
each habitat will be attached to the central hub by at least two
tethers. If a guest is "reeled in" to the central hub, a like amount of
mass (perhaps another guest or the equivalent mass in supplies) will
need to be "reeled out" to maintain the overall balance.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this sort of "small scale" rotating
habitat?

Chris