Spinning [WAS] Island One, Two and Three

Hi Dave, have you read the book "Mining The Sky" by JOHN S. LEWIS -
Perseus Books. It contains some quite interesting reasons for going to
the Moon and Mars. On the Moon we might build Lunar solar power
stations and process the regolith for helium-3 to use as a fuel in
fusion reactors and on Mars we could build a very interesting device
called a sky hook which would turn Mars into a very important base for
the exploration and exploitation of the asteroid belt and the outer
solar system.

Regards, David

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Dave Logsdon"
> Hello, everyone... I'm Dave. I just joined this list, but I see a
few names
> I recognize from some other space-related lists, so I'm just going
to dive
> off into the deep end of the pool, into the middle of an existing
thread. ;)
> Two questions...
>
> From: Xenophile [mailto:xenophile2002@y...]
>
> > Let's design the experiment that lets people be Human Space Guinea
> > Pigs, and see what happens at full-G, but 5 rpm, or 4, or 3, or 2 or
> > 1 rmp. Let's come up with something that NASA, the Russians, or even
> > some non-governmental group could do to answer these questions.
>
> There were studies at the U.S. Naval Medical Center, at Pensacola,
Florida,
> and at the Soviet ORBIT centrifuge facility, in the `60s/`70s. Other
tests
> were being examined as late as July of this year. I'm certainly not
claiming
> those tests were all-inclusive, but is there something specific, beyond
> those studies, that you're looking for?
>
> From: Combs, Mike [mailto:mikecombs@t...]
>
> I'd like to see a system where we start out at a rotation rate producing
> 1/6th of a G, and leave an astronaut there for 6 months or more. Then
> change crew and increase rotation rate to 1/3rd of a G.
>
> This is a great idea, if we assume there's anything worth spending
our time
> on with either the Moon *or* Mars. But so far, the best information I've
> seen says we need to aim for the NEOs, and either build the classic,
> `constructed' O'Neill's, or hollow out asteroids. Why spend all the
effort
> to break free of Earth's gravity well, just to dump ourselves back
down in