[SOT] Whale Habitats?

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, Al Globus wrote:
> I don't think rotation will help you. It is not true gravity.
There
> is no attraction between the rim and a whale anywhere but in
contact
> with the rim. You might get a little force on the whale because
the
> water is rotating with the structure, but you have to do the
fluid
> dynamics to figure out the forces and I doubt they'll be much
like
> gravity in any sense.
>
> If you don't rotate, then the structure can be much bigger since
only
> the hydrostatic pressure of the water needs to be dealt with.

How would whales breathe in a non-rotating structure? They need to
surface in order to breathe, which means that the air and water must
be kept separate, and the only way to do that in orbit AFAIK is to
rotate the thing.

Ed

>
> On Thursday, September 11, 2003, at 07:49 AM, Jeffery Watkins
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > Lurking of course, since my scientific contribution is about
nil. I
> > was hoping I can call upon this list for help with a part of
fictional
> > role playing setting I'm working on--not for profit. I was
wandering
> > if a space settlement cylinder would work for cetaceans. The
premise
> > being a sanctuary or 'ark' of sorts for different species of
whales
> > with the decline of the ecosphere of the oceans on earth.
Already have
> > a way to get them up there in the setting, just questions of
details
> > of the cylinder, which is tentatively named 'Cachalot' after
Alan Dean
> > Foster's book about a world given over to the whales.
> >
> > Supposing that such a project could be done, how deep would the
water
> > have to be and would the rotational rate be the same as a
standard
> > island three type cylinder? Would 40 kilometer length be
considered
> > too small? Would it be like the 'Africa class' sized cylinder
> > mentioned in High Frontier (I think)?
> >
> > Hopefully this is not too off topic as it deals with fiction,
but I
> > want to try and keep it as much with scientific plausibility as
> > possible.
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
> >
> > Jeff
> >
&
----
> > ~->
> >
-----
> ---------------------
> Space tourism could be our ticket to the stars. Save your
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>
> Al Globus
> CSC at NASA Ames Research Center
> http://www.nas.nasa.gov/~globus/home.html
>
> Views expressed in this email are only my opinions and are not
the