mounstable rants concerning Instability of long cylinders

OK EVERYONE THIS IS WICKED COOL!

Two large Stanford toruses ( "tori"?) connected by a large common shaft. Each habitat rotating in opposite direction. The common shaft is large and where docking and microgravity work is done. The common shaft uses magnetic bearing to connect frictionless with both habitats.

The cool thging here is the whole complex will be s'pun up" using "Linear "motors/generators (like maglevs) located between the shaft and the torus. This way both habitats will serve as power storage devices. If the complex is pulling in more energy than it needs it can be stored as torus spin. Plus the magnetic bearing would be used to control instablities by adjusting the field strength at different places.

Here is another thought about magnetic fields. They could be important for protection during a large solar flare. And there was some work talking about magantic fields used for propulsion, like sails in the solar wind, why not have the habitat start traveling to different orbits, like say first to venus and mercury to take advantge of discover and the increase in usable power from solar energy.
You could have this "city-state" college meant to spend 20 years orbiting Venus and learning and experimenting with the sister planet and have another orbit and explore mercury

Mercury is perfect for metals and if there was a way to "mine" Venus's atmosphere of it's contents CO2, water and sulfuric acids would be useful.

I hate talking like this when it is so expensive to get into LEO right now.
I just dream of the majority of human beings living off world on habitats, astroids,moons and planets.
BestRegards,
Pete

GARY ANSORGE wrote: Precession depends upon the application of a force at
right angles to the direction of rotation. On Earth,
this force is gravity. Since the gyro/torus is in free
fall, this force is negligible, therefore there should
be no substantive precession.

Gary 7

> I think the torus design has precesion issues. Think
> of it as a slow top.
>
> The way around this was highlighted in Kubrick's
> movie
> of Clarke's 2001 book. Two parallel torus connect by
> a
> common shaft.
>
> Another variation on the torus was the Baseball
> Design
> of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
>
> David
>
> > Maybe it is better to go with an inherently stable
> > design, such as a torus.
> >
> > Ed
> >
> > > Systems are rather interesting. ..we can classify
> > > them in a number of
> > > ways.
> > >
> > > COmpletely passive, reinforced,
> passive-reactive,
> > > active-reactive.
> > >
> > > For space, passive would be the basic structure.
> > > Reinforced would
> > > allow a structure to bend with the environment
> > > without tearing itself
> > > apart through twisting or resonance.
> > >
> > > Passive-reactive is where aerodynamic forces
> > (space
> > > dynamic in our
> > > case) are reacted to by a dynamic system.
> However,
> > > it may be one shot
> > > or reusable.
> > >
> > > Active-reactive would include systems where
> weight
> > > in the form of
> > > solids, liquids and gases are moved about in
> such
> > a
> > > way to maintain
> > > control. Damping out of mass movements either at
> > the
> > > object level or
> > > within the object (creep, center of mass,
> surface
> > > transitions, etc.)
> > >
> > > Structures in space have no foundation - no
> earth
> > -
> > > to help dampen or
> > > control external or internal forces. In space,
> > there
> > > is weather mostly
> > > from the sun that must be dealth with
> constantly.
> > >
> > > An active-reactive system can be very expensive.
> > > However, engineers
> > > try to reduce the active to a passive problem.
> > >
> > > The biggest worries in space for a long cylinder
> > are
> > > resonance waves
> > > where small forces generate end to end waves
> that
> > > buildup and
> > > overwhelm any system. Torquing is also a major
> > > worry.
> > >
> > > The way to make the long cylinder to work is an
> > > exoskeleton bracing
> > > such that the thickness of the "skin" is at
> least
> > 2%
> > > of the diameter.
> > > For 5 miles diameter, this would be 0.1 or 500
> > feet
> > > of structure
> > > although with a buckyball (see your soccerball)
> > > technique, that might
> > > be reduced to 50 feet or so.
> > >
> > > David
> > >
> > > --- In ssi_list@... s.com, Ed Minchau
> > > >
> > > > These towers would act much like the spokes of
> a
> > > > wheel-shaped station, and might be a good idea
> > for
> > > > structural and aesthetic reasons. However,
> for
> > > > rotational stability (and indeed, any critical
> > > > systems) one would want things to be inherent
> in
> > > the
> > > > design. Critical systems that are active
> rather
> > > than
> > > > passive would be very vulnerable and also lead
> > to
> > > the
> > > > possibility of a "chain reaction" failure,
> where
> > > one
> > > > system going down leads to another going down
> > and
> > > so
> > > > forth.
> > > >
> > > > Ed
> > > >
> > > > --- ForDutyAndHumanity IAmSpacebearAICDA
> > > >
> > > > > How about an active system to keep the
> > cylinder
> > > > > stable.
> > > > >
> > > > > I know that what everyone loves about the
> > O'Neal
> > > > > cylinder is the large spacious feeling. But
> it
> > > would
> > > > > add to the strength of the structure and
> > permit
> > > > > active stablization of the cylinder by
> bulding
> > > large
> > > > > skyscrapers/ building which are the internal
> > > diameter
> > > > > of the cylinder.
> > > > > People could live and work in these
> buildings.
> > > > > elevators would provide easy transport from
> > one
> > > side
> > > > > or the other. But the active stablizing
> system
> > > could
> > > > > be ,lakes at the base of each building,
> pumps
> > > could
> > > > > pump the water up to the weightless center
> of
> > > the
> > > > > building. It would work the same way as
> when
> > > ice
> > > > > skater pull in their arms to spin faster.
> > > > >
> > > > > You could wire the whole cylinder with
> stress
> > > and
> > > > > acceration sensors to provide the
> information
> > > for
> > > > > how the pumps would work.
> > > > >
> > > > > So these building or even a cross structure
> > > would
> > > > > provide added strength to the cylinder,
> places
> > > to
> > > > > live and an active stabilty system. Plus
> > > tourist
> > > > > would love the microgravity living in the
> > middle
> > > of
> > > > > these buildings.
> > > > > BestRegards,
> > > > > Pete
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > ------------ --------- --------- ---
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Be smarter than spam. See how smart
> > > SpamGuard is at giving
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