How Earthlike?

Hi Lucio,

How do you build tall buildings on the 6 - 10 metre thick inner surface
of a habitat? I would think O'Neill's preference for small buildings was
a simple matter of constructional capability.

Best wishes, Andy.

"Dr. Omni" wrote:

> From: Combs, Mike
> To:
> Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2001 11:46 AM
> Subject: [spacesettlers] How Earthlike?
>
> [snikt]
> > My view is that the more Earthlike space habitats are, the easier it
> will
> be
> > to sell property lots to people who were born and raised on Earth.
> I
> > suppose that would be more of an issue in the early days than in
> later
> ones,
> > though.
> >
> However, most of the human population is urban nowadays. Even in a
> third
> world country like mine, 81% of people live in cities, some of them
> *really*
> big, like So Paulo (10 million) or Rio (6 million). Then, if you
> re-create
> a Terran urban environment, I don't think that it is unreasonable to
> think
> that most of the mainly urban Terran population will not find the
> habitat
> unbearably alien. I wouldn't.
>
> [snikt]
> > Well, it becomes a question of intention. Is the space habitat
> intended
> as
> > a replacement for a city, or as a replacement for a region of the
> Earth's
> > surface? If the latter (the view I tend to take), then rolling
> hills etc.
> > seem reasonable.
> >
> I tend to take the former view, the habitat as a city. Perhaps because
> I
> always lived in cities... Also, Belo Horizonte, the city where I have
> been
> living for the past 20 years, is big enough (2 million people) to make
> the
> city limits (and what lies beyond them) barely noticeable: if I look
> through
> my window, the *only* thing that I can see is the city, with buildings
> and
> houses sprawling to the horizon. (Although walking a few blocks I can
> see
> the Curral mountain range in the south of the city. Well, people
> interested
> in seeing the city can take a look at the English version of the
> tourism
> section at the city hall site:
> http://www.pbh.gov.br/belotur/ingles/index.htm .) Because of that, a
> more
> natural environment like a forest or even a farm is more alien to me
> than a
> city-like space habitat would probably be.
>
> > Some people say no one would ever live in a space habitat because
> they
> could
> > never leave. While that's obviously wrong, I think a city which
> spread to
> > the uttermost confines of the habitat would not be pleasant. It
> would be
> > nice to leave the city for the "country" every once and a while
> without
> > leaving the habitat.
> >
> Perhaps for some people, I agree... As for me, the last time that I
> was in a
> farm was more than a year ago. I was attending a birthday barbecue of
> one of
> my co-workers and spent a few hours there. I can hardly remember the
> event
> (oh, well, I remember that the barbecue was delicious ;-) and I'm sure
> that
> I wouldn't miss it...
>
> > Having said that, I wouldn't rule out cities with tall buildings, as
>
> O'Neill
> > did. That was a matter of personal taste on his part, and people of
> all
> > different kinds of tastes will build orbital settlements.
> >
> Indeed. Nevertheless, in the beginning, when space habitats will be by
> no
> means the cheapest things in the world (or, rather, off-world ;-), I
> would
> think that habitats with near-optimal filling of the internal volume
> (i.e.,
> cities with tall buildings) would be preferred. It is the same real
> state
> phenomenon that happens in New York or Tokyo or So Paulo: when you
> have a
> piece of land that costs a lot, you try to get your money back and
> make
> profit by putting a tall building in that place and selling a lot of
> apartments - in a sense, multiplying the surface area that you bought.
>
> [snikt]
> > Regards,
> >
> Regards,
>
> > Mike Combs
>
> Lucio Coelho
>
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