Alternative Island 3

On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 02:36:44 -0000, improbableman wrote:
(...)
> "Dock? What dock?"
>
> In my approach, one of the colony endcap hubs would be taken up
> by the sunlight reflectors. This eliminates half the docking access
> to the colony. This is not neccessarily a bad thing.
> Having only one dock means that there are less airlocks to
> maintain, maybe less rotating fluid seals. Only one transport hub is
> needed, so security can operate more efficiently. If the transport
> system is designed well, and the colony is not disproportionately
> scaled up, one docking port should suffice for all exchanges with the
> exterior.
(...)

People are used to the idea of docking at the poles of the colony, but
in fact there is an (admittedly more complex) alternative. You could
have a magrail ring in the outside of the cylinder (for instance,
midway between the poles), running along the circumference of the
cylinder. Ships could "dock" magnetically (and without physical
contact) to the ring, and then be accelerated until the speed of the
ship circling the rail matches the rotation of the cylinder. Then the
ship could be "elevated" to the inside of the cylinder. It would raise
from an airlock in the floor of the internal surface.

By using that approach, you could even use *both* endcaps for
lighting. However, since I think this scheme is overly complex, I
would rather prefer the traditional dock at the pole.