Rotating Mirrors

From: "Andy Nimmo"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2001 8:23 AM
Subject: Re: [spacesettlers] Rotating Mirrors

[snikt]
On the psychological constraints on space settlements, a number of papers on
this came out in the 70s. Sorry, I don't have titles or authors to hand, but
as I recall the objections were not related to size so much as to effects of
differing shapes over long periods of residence. On this, the cylindrical
shape came out O.K., but both the inside of a sphere and/or a torus
definitely lost out.

Interesting. So, fortunately space settlements are not doomed, for one can
build a cylindrical habitat much smaller than Island 3 (and even Babylon 5,
for that matter ;-).

However, I must confess that I'm kind of skeptical about the validity of
those studies. Maybe I'm too ignorant, but I can't imagine how someone in
the 70's would be able to make so drastic a prediction on the behavior of
people in a structure that simply does not exist yet. Even nowadays, with
virtual reality techniques, such a study would be controversial at best.
(Indeed, that would be a nice experiment, to try to immerse people in a VR
environment simulating a Stanford Torus or an Island One. Unfortunately, I
think that it would be very difficult to simulate the kinesthetic effects,
although there has been some recent progress with direct electrical
stimulation of the inner ear.) So, in case you remember the references or
find them again, I would be very grateful to see them in order to check
those papers.

Best wishes, Andy.
[snikt]

Best whishes, Lucio