Planetary Chauvanism, and Zubrin-ites

From: Josh Kane [mailto:galactonerd@...]

Well, the thing is, it would probably be prohibitively expensive to
build space colonies a la Gerard K. O'Neill. My idea is to mine the
asteroids and, after they have been hollowed out, make space colonies.

I must disagree. I think this perception comes from the notion that the most
difficult part of making a space colony will be building the metal shell. I
would expect the most expensive parts will be building up industrial
infrastructure from scratch, and setting up and balancing a closed ecology.
These expenses would be the same in any case. I think one would only have
to go to slightly less trouble ensuring the inside of the asteroid wouldn't
leak than in building a hermetic metal pressure shell. It also strikes me
that getting natural sunlight inside an asteroid might be someone more
problematic than inside an O'Neill habitat.

Personally, I would be more concerned about air leakage, and the thing
coming apart under the stress loads of the air pressure and the spin in an
asteroid than inside a manufactured metal shell.

Regards,

Mike Combs

From:
Josh Kane [mailto:galactonerd@...]
Well, the thing is, it would probably be prohibitively expensive to
build space colonies a la Gerard K. O'Neill. My idea is to mine the
asteroids and, after they have been hollowed out, make space colonies.
I must disagree. I think this perception comes from the notion that the most difficult part of making a space colony will be building the metal shell. I would expect the most expensive parts will be building up industrial infrastructure from scratch, and setting up and balancing a closed ecology. These expenses would be the same in any case. I think one would only have to go to slightly less trouble ensuring the inside of the asteroid wouldn't leak than in building a hermetic metal pressure shell. It also strikes me that getting natural sunlight inside an asteroid might be someone more problematic than inside an O'Neill habitat.

Personally, I would be more concerned about air leakage, and the thing coming apart under the stress loads of the air pressure and the spin in an asteroid than inside a manufactured metal shell.

Regards,
Mike Combs