Artificial Biospheres In Space

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, Gturner6PPC@y... wrote:

> A second point I would make is that massive windows down on the
> plains would collect rainwater and leaves, and where you have
> rainwater, sunlight, nutrients, and a glass surface you get a
> nearly opaque layer of algae. I ran an odd aquarium with an
> external side illuminated algal turf scrubber, and the coating is
> pretty much opaque within a week or two. So the windows have to
> stay dry.

Yes. By placing the lens at the top of the mountain ridge that runs
the length of the cylinder, you avoid all the debris. Youu still
have to deal with rain, but because the lenses aren't strucutral
components of the pressure vessel, you'd probably have a lot more
leeway in designing an automated process for cleaning the lens.
Think of a streetcleaner.

Also, the mountains break the monotony of flat, curving landscape
within the cylinder. The border the length of each land mass.

Further, in the corridor underneath the mountains you have ample
room to have many stations of mirrors because the slope can be
extended to the height of the mountain.

Here is a rough sketch of the idea and it includes the light rays
within the cylinder.

The file is loaded into the FILES section of the spacesettlers e-
group. You can find it there under the title "Colony Design" in
addition to many other interesting titles posted by other members,
or just go here:

http://tinyurl.com/2zz68

Note, that the strips of land and mountain(glass) are not all 1/6 of
circumference. The land is larger and the mountains are smaller
because of the lens effect.

> That makes a bit more sense. You can also just make the mirrors a
> giant non-rotating cone, though it causes thermal problems.

Yes, the thermal problems is why I didn't favor the cone. The
sunlight would be concentrating on the exterior of the cylinder.

Of course, if you want to get complicated, you could design a non-
rotating cone, and have it be comprised of many mirrors that are
timed to flip on-off in syncrhonization with the rotation of the
cylinder. Thus, from your viewpoint on the rotating cylinder, the
light coming from the light-cone, would appear to be stationary.

Seems like more of a headache though.

TangoMan