Earth-Based Prototype of a Stanford Torus

> The way to make a hotel/resort directly relate to the SSI mission,
IMHO, is to have it as a full scale model of a Stanford torus.
>
> If you like this idea, you might want to check out
beast for $10 billion.

> ++JohnWheeler

Thanks for that opening, John.

Actually, the ten billion is for both the Earth-based prototype of a
Stanford Torus as well an entertainment complex to be built in the
circular area of the Torus. This entertainment complex would, itself,
be patterned after a Stanford Torus that is combined with R.
Buckminster Fuller's pre-engineered city called "Old Man River."

The ten billion-dollar ROM (Rough Order of Magnitude) was a
projection from a six billion dollar ROM for the largest yet cruise
ship (named City At Sea) as discussed on pages 69-73 of the February
1998 issue of Popular Mechanics. The entertainment complex would have
only 2/3 the total surface area of the ship (thus four billion) and
the Stanford Torus would be approximately equal in total surface area
for an additional six billion.

Getting the attention of the super rich would easily permit such a
project to proceed. One possible way to do this is through a nascent
organization called the Eye of the Needle Foundation, or EON (see
http://www.futurist.com/futuristnews/archive/archive__EON_Dave_Brin.ht
m) the brainchild of the science fiction author David Brin. Its
symbol is a camel going through a needle's eye, indicative of a
somewhat humorous purpose to create a loophole for a rich man to
enter the Kingdom. The 100 "Do-Good" projects described in an EON
catalog would have price tags ranging from 100 million dollars to 50
billion dollars.

It might, however, be eons before EON is up and running so I have
outlined below a possible but improbable sequence of events that
would permit this entertainment complex to be built:

1. A fundraising Exhibit is placed throughout the world in protected
environments such as shopping malls.
2. An international business is started that uses a direct sale
format.
3. The business is expanded into standard retail outlets patterned
after a Rainforest Caf (see http://www.rainforestcafe.com/RFC/),
except instead of a rainforest motif, the outlets will be built along
the lines of a Stanford Torus space settlement. Appropriate space
exploration, solar system, and galactic pictures would be displayed
in the overhead and throughout the store.
4. The business is leveraged to build the first entertainment
complex/Earth-based prototype of a Stanford Torus.

Earnings from a network of entertainment complexes would then be
tithed to support space development. This source could be used to
supplement/replace SPSs as the financial foundation upon which a
space settlement construction program might be built.

I have created a web site at http://www.alphaspaceproducts.com that
introduces these concepts and have started a discussion group at
might find this approach of interest.

Best Regards,

Leon Neihouse