Planet-Sized, Non-Rotating Habitats [needs nanotech]

You're evil, Xenophile! Your post triggered a process of UFog Gravity
Madness in my head and I can't stop thinking about the damned thing!
:-)

Another implications that I thought of:

- Your "planet" could indeed have an arbitrary shape or orientation.
For instance, you could still have a hollow sphere, but have a
habitable world in the *inner* surface - a kind of artificial
Pellucidar. Of course (like in Pellucidar) your would need some kind
of artificial "sun" at the center of this structure to power a
photosynthesis-based biosphere. Pretzel-like planets, cubic planets,
everything would be possible, though of course some shapes are more
engineering-friendly than others.

- From a biological viewpoint, UFog would be far from perfect.
Although your bones and muscles would remain stimulated and healthy,
your bodily fluids would flow evenly along your body and you would get
a puffy face and congested nose, as normally happens in
weightlessness. Also, you would show some immune depression in the
same way.

On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 14:38:28 -0300, Lucio de Souza Coelho
wrote:
> Just stressing: supposing that UFog is possible, then you could make
> that bigger or smaller than Earth. Size would not be an issue. In
> theory, you could have even a "Little Prince's Planet" for just one
> person.
>
> Another "options" ("options" is in quote marks because I don't think
> seriously that they will ever be *viable* options :-) would be:
>
> - An outer spheric grid of ultra-powerful magnets (perhaps made of
> meta-stable metallic hydrogen or other sort of
> magnetic/superconducting "unobtenium") that would push everything
> against the inner "crust" shell through diamagnetism. Of course
> ferromagnetic objects and electronics would likely be a problem under
> this scenario.
>
> - An inner black whole or chunck of quark matter in the center of the
> "crust" sphere, massive enough to produce *actual* gravity on its
> surface.
(...)