Tensegrity Structuspace habitats

'Stephen Covey' stephen.covey@... [spacesettlers]

> Besides, I like the relative simplicity of having a solar panel array
> between the habitat and the sun to gather sola r energy while shading
> the habitat so it can more easily radiate the heat of agriculture and
> civilization.

I tend to agree.

The common objection revolves around the power losses in converting from
light to electricity, and back to light. But I once made the argument
to Mike that it's analogous to the big rotating turbines (driven by
steam or flowing water or whatever) at a power plant: they could have
long rotating rods transmitting this rotational energy to homes
directly, through a series of linkages, and ultimately turning the fan
in your living room. But it's far more convenient to convert the
rotation at the source to electricity, and convert that back into
rotation where you need it, despite the energy losses in doing so.

Of course there's also the psychological argument, that people will
simply be happier knowing that they're baking in natural sunlight, and
than when they look "up" they're seeing the actual sky (even if
reflected through a complex contraption of mirrors). I'm sure there's
some truth to this, at least for some people. But I suspect they'd get
over it. :)

But I do think there's value in having some sort of actual view, at
least at night. That's why I rather like the idea of the sky being some
sort of digital display (whether projectors or giant LED panels or
whatever), slaved to cameras so that at night, you can display the stars
and the Earth and Moon as they actually appear. Depending on the
geometry of your habitat, doing this without distortion could be a
challenge. But I think it's surmountable.

> Of course, with my approach, agriculture is done in separate areas than
> human live/work/recreation, so having different lights isnt a problem
> (and note that being able to have different crops have different
> day/night cycles can be an advantage).

Well, yeah, realistically most of your agriculture is probably going to
be done in high-density growth factories like this one:

http://gizmodo.com/the-worlds-largest-led-hydroponic-farm-used-to-be-a-son-1603082545

> No, I dont believe that we
> should build huge habitats where a huge portion of our interior surface
> is farmed using current terrestrial practices of tractors and plows,
> with natural sunlight beamed from above in a way that simulates the
> movement of the Sun from dawn to dusk.

Agreed, that's not very practical or economic. (Though in High
Frontier, I'm going to allow it anyway, because some players will want
it... let them see if they can find a way to make it pay!)

> I detail my arguments in
> http://ramblingsonthefutureofhumanity.blogspot.com/2009/11/lighting-
> our-space-habitats.html

Great stuff. Please consider stopping by the High Frontier forums, and
discussing these ideas further there. I guarantee you'll find an
interested audience, and maybe together, we can get an actual
conversation going! http://highfrontier.com/forum/

Best,
- Joe