Redesigning O Neill cylinders

Millenial70 wrote:

"Looking at it empirically tells me that we don't know how people
are going to react to living in these things, until they are built and
tested with live people for long periods of time. My gut level
feeling, though, is that people are less likely going to feel
claustrophobia and cabin fever, the larger the space and the higher
the roof are going to be within the habitat."

With this in mind, I was watching the first part of 2001 last night (DVD
widescreen, surround sound = awesome) and it struck me how /low/ the
illuminated ceiling was over the heads of those in the space station. It
looked like it could be as low as eight feet (2.4m) - which is
admittedly fine for anyone standing at a chair discussing illnesses at
Clavius, but distinctly too low for people looking "up" the curve of the
station to see who's approaching, or for those wanting a bigger vista.
It really felt quite claustrophic. Of course, "it's a movie", and
perhaps economic arguments would be made to keep the spun structure
decks close together - but in any permanent spun hab, "enough" headspace
would be good for all sorts of psychological reasons. (Enough being,
say, 5 to 10 metres: the height at which you can't easily measure
distance through binocular vision any more, and at which a more
realistic sky effect could be portrayed.)

Incidentally, the rotation period of the station is depicted as around
28-30 seconds. Top marks for picking a realistic rate which is just less
than the unpleasantness that kicks in at 3rpm, and suggesting (for a 1g
floor) a diameter of 195-220 metres. Though that doesn't tie-in with the
"1000-foot" diameter suggestion too well.

Andy Goddard