Artificial Biospheres In Space

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Combs, Mike"
> From: Gturner6PPC@y... [mailto:Gturner6PPC@y...]
>
> > Also ignore my previous central cone idea. A pure cone is
unlikely
> > to work right, since the narrow end has a very small
circumpherence
> > and the far, fat end has a very large circumpherence. So at a
> > constant heat and light load, the station is dim under the
narrow
> > end and of the cone and very bright under the fat end of the
cone.
> > Using the outside surface of a paraboloid might solve this
problem
>
> Check out http://www.ssi.org/assets/images/Ch06p086.gif and
> http://www.ssi.org/assets/images/Ch06p088.gif, from
> http://www.ssi.org/Don_Davis_Artshow.html.

Mike, the last two links are dead.

> > (recalling that the actual reflecting surfaces are just grooves
> > machined at 45 degrees to the axis), but it still leaves you
with no
> > way to make the sun move. There's also no good way to dim the
> > lights, so every evening Elvis would just leave the building.
>
> Here's an idea I've thought about. It's important to remember
that these
> gigantic, smoothly curving mirrors we see in the illustrations are
in
> reality many mirror segments about 1 meter square.
>
> Imagine that on the external mirror, one out of every 100 mirror
segments
> has a yellow filter on it. Another one out of every 100 has an
orange
> filter, and another one out of every 100 has a red filter.
>
> With all segments turned to reflect light into the interior of the
habitat,
> a person would be hard-pressed to notice much reddening of the
light. But
> imagine that we're trying to recreate sunset. We begin by
sequentially
> tilting the unfiltered mirrors. The light fades, and as it does
so, it
> tends toward yellow.
>
> Finally we are down to only the filtered mirrors, and by now the
lighting is
> distinctly orange. We then sequentially begin to tilt the yellow
until
> they're all out of the picture, and then the orange. By the end
of the
> process, the habitat is bathed in dim red light like the light
from a sun
> slipping below the horizon, before the lights go out completely.
>
> In the morning, we reverse the process.
>
> Even if we can't recreate the motion of the "sun" across the sky,
I'm
> convinced we can at least emulate the colors and light levels of
sunrise and
> sunset.

Why, that's a fine idea! I think the psychological appeal will be
great. Natural beauty certainly will help alleviate some of the
feelings of isolation.

How would this work in a Torus, or a Cylinder?

TangoMan