Physics Question on PressuVessels

Hi All

> The Habitat will have a lot of inertia, so I'm not too worried about
> the variation of rotation caused by the miniscule proportion of mass
> that would be moving within. It's the more massive stationary
> constructions that will place unequal loads on the pressure vessel
> that has me curious.

I would have thought that the interior of a habitat would probably be given
over to parkland. With everybody living (and mostly working) subsurface. I
can't see any reason why the western suburban model should be the default
model of an orbital society. There are lots of other models - Italian hill
top village is my favourite.

Given that mode of thought, massive stationary constructions do not place a
load on the shell - they the shell and they are planned for. Compensating
for smaller masses that shift around should be pretty easy. The habitat will
always rotate around its center of mass. A laser shining on a gyroscope on
the center line should be able to detect the shift off the centerline
(however infinitesimal) of internal mass movements. Then you would just pump
water around to compensate. Think about it - waterfalls get turned on and
off to cope with the evening rush hour. You might even be able to work out
some sort of tidal system.

Cheers
Dale