Novel conditions

If you wish to write your book in the spirit of this maillist your
space colonies should be predominantly habitats in free space of the
O'Neill type (i.e large spheres, toroids (doughnut shape),
cylinders). These would be located close to easily accessible space
materials (The asteroid belt, and small to moderately sized moons of
any planets).

Conventional materials allow a maximum size in the order of several
kilometers in radius by tens of kilometers in length for cylinders -
the nanomaterials you mention would allow habitats much larger.

Time scale is a difficult one. If O'Neill's plan had been taken up in
the 70's we could have seen the first colony at L5 now (Lagrange
point 5 on the Earth-moon orbit). Colonies would eventually spread to
Near Earth asteroids then to the asteroid belt and the moons of Mars.

Eventually the small moons of the outer planets and then the Kuiper
belt asteroids would be utilised. The vast majority of habitats I
would suggest would be in the asteroid belt where there is the most
available material and the Sun is still close enough to provide
maximum free energy.

Your time frame I think is reasonable as long as we start along these
lines in the near future.

Regards

Mark.

N.B. have you ever read StarHammer by Christopher Rowley? It is an
excellent book set in the far future. A large part of the beginning
of the book is set in a Solar system with no habitable planets but
people live in habitats. The largest habitat is a hollowed out
rotating asteroid called Hyperion Grandee. Also featured is a
toroidal habitat with a population of 250,000 which is 'tied' to a
comet called Sooner. It is one of the few books I have read that
takes in the ideas proposed by Gerard O'Neill. It's out of print but
there are places on the net you can obtain it. Let me know if you are
interested.

Regards

Mark.

--- In spacesettlers@y..., "Andy Doerksen" wrote:
> Hello, all. I'd like to ask a plausibility question related to a
novel I'm
> writing. I thought I'd show you a list of elements in the
situation I
> envision:
>
> - Solar System colonies (including the moons of the gas giants)
that have
> achieved independence from Earth
> - smallscale space travel capability (e.g., 1- or 2-man craft
capability,
> not just
> huge, expensive monsters), due in large measure to lightweight
spaceship
> material (nano-built?)
> - a pseudo-feudal system, no System-wide coherence, yet with
(naturally)
> advanced technology -- but no one state has the power to dominate
the
> others
> (this element is reminiscent of Star Wars; I want there to be a
medieval
> feel to it
> but without sacrificing high-tech)
> - Earth and Mars devastated by a mammoth Earth-vs-Colonies war,
perhaps
> involving nanos/mems, perhaps biotech; I'm not sure yet
>
> To sum up: think 'The Postman' but with space mobility. In light
of the
> above conditions, what would you feel is a plausible date to set
the story
> in? Right now I'm camping on 2230. Your answers to this single
question