mounstable rants concerning Instability of long cylinders

On Jun 18, 2007, at 18:50 UTC, ForDutyAndHumanity IAmSpacebearAICDA

> 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.

I don't think magnetic bearings are necessary. But they might be nice.

> 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.

Neat -- when there's an energy crisis, at least you get lighter. And
when you wake up pinned to your bed unable to move, you know those new
solar panels were brought online. :)

> Here is another thought about magnetic fields. They could be
> important for protection during a large solar flare.

Only really, obnoxiously, ridiculously strong ones. They studied this
in the 1970s and concluded that it probably wasn't practical (which is
saying something considering all the challenges that were considered
quite reasonable by the same group!).

> 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.

In science fiction, if two technologies use some of the same words, you
can sometimes sort of fudge them together as if they're the same thing.
But even then, I wouldn't expect someone to go all the way from
magnetic bearings to magnetic sailing around the solar system protected
by plasma (magnetic) shields!

Best,
- Joe

Joe Strout -- joe@...
Strout Custom Solutions