National Geographic's "Evacuate Earth"

On 6/25/14 9:01 AM, 'Adam D. Ruppe' destructionator@...
[spacesettlers] wrote:

> You've maybe considered this before but I think a habitat with a perigee
> close to an Earth transfer station and an apogee close to a lunar supply
> depot (and habitat cluster!) could be really interesting, cycling people
> and materials in the luxury of a moving city except for the transfer
> shuttles without being really expensive to maintain.

That's an interesting thought. Of course your transfer shuttles still
have to match orbits with whatever they're transferring to/from. But at
least the transit time could be short.

Thinking long-term, when cislunar space starts to feel crowded, I wonder
if this would increase the risk of collision? I sometimes think that we
will eventually need to restrict orbits, especially of large heavy
things that can't easily maneuver, to certain well-behaved,
non-intersecting orbits. I imagine those would mostly be circular and
equatorial. But you'd still have to have transfer orbits... if your
Earth-Moon cycler is highly inclined (e.g. polar), it could easily miss
the entire ring of stuff in the equatorial orbits, as long as its
perigee and apogee are carefully chosen.

Wow, what a lot of great discussion we've got going today! :)

- Joe