Help Design your FutuHome in Space

> while I appreciate the effort to reduce the requirements for a space
> settlement and its positioning in ELEO, eliminating radiation shileds
> and allowing faster rpm and smaller dimensions, I still beleive thatas a
> first settlement is too gigantic and its construction requiring large
> equipment and very long times for assembly and occupancy, which may put
> at risk the entire operation and its feasibility.

Nobody expects the first settlement to be built right after ISS.
Rather, it's expected that it will follow a series of increasingly
larger hotels and specialized facilities, which (because they are not
permanent residences) have significantly lower G requirements, but
nonetheless work up to something like a first ELEO settlement.

The settlement outlined in Al's papers are about as small as one can be
made, and still have Earthlike gravity, and enough space to be
considered something more than a space station.

> A settlement
> composed of several rings, rorating around a centarl hub, and with
> attached modules for the functions needed may solve the problem,
> allowing nearly immediate occupancy and business activities that would
> justify its costs and realization .

How so? Are you supposing these rings can be launched in one piece?
How big are they?

> Additional rings can be added as
> needed without modifyng the general cylindrical shape and circular
> dimensions and allowing not only expansion capabilities but extreme
> flexibility for requirements that may be unforeseen at the time of
> design following the first activities in the initial ring.

Added where? Are these larger rings added concentrically, or additional
same-sized rings that extend the structure in length?

In the latter case I fear we would run afoul of rotational instability
(http://highfrontierblog.com/2014/08/21/energy-loss-makes-colonies-tumble/).

Best,
- Joe