Island A

Valery Polyakov spent 437 days on Mir. So we have proof positive that a
duty stay of 437 days followed by return to Earth is acceptable. I
speculate that that could be stretched to a yet even longer period of time.
Let's suppose that a duty stay of two years is acceptable. How necessary
is rotation?

Ron Menich

"Combs, Mike"
ssi_list@... ssi_list@...
04/20/01
09:02 AM
Please
respond to
ssi_list

Rotation seems to me to be a nice-to-have rather than a minimal
requirement
for an initial orbital workshop.
Maybe, but if he's intending duty shifts of a year or more, some level of
artificial gravity would be good.

But with a rotation rate the same as Island 1, but with only a fraction of
the diameter, I'm thinking the centrifugal force produced would be much
less than a G. "How much is enough" is still an open question, but I
suspect some gravity will be better than none.

The kind of thing he's talking about is what they called the Space
Manufacturing Facility or SMF (or sometimes the "construction shack") back
in the old studies.

Regards,

Mike Combs