War in space

On 11/27/05, Dan Wylie-Sears wrote:
> ... under a vast amount of tension so as to support its own
> centrifugal weight with low curvature.

Nope. Atmospheric loading is much less.

1 Earth normal atmospheric loading is 10 tonnes per square meter. The
weight of one square meter of floor material at 1 earth normal gravity
is *much* less; well under a tonne.

> Punch a hole in the Ringworld
> and you get Fist of God Mountain; punch a hole in a rotating colony
> built of real materials and the result may be catastrophic failure.

Maybe, maybe not. My gut feel is not.

You've just reduced the main load- atmospheric loading at the breach
point, so it might well survive in fact.

Also, the volume of a habitat is vast. It takes a very big hole to
depressurise one in less than days.

I mean, an aeroplane at 30 thousand feet can lose a window, and still
reach 30 thousand feet in a few minutes without everyone suffocating.
Concorde had smaller windows because it was higher and took longer to
come down.

You need to think how much more volume a habitat has than an aeroplane.

O'Neill said it would take *days* to depressurise enough that you
would have to evacuate from a 1kg lump meteorite hole for example.

-Ian Woollard

Identity cards, cameras on every corner, long term detention without
trial, electronic tapping and reading of email/phone calls, speed
cameras that increase the death rate, extradition for torture - It's
all double plus good, Big Brother Blair and Uncle Bush are my friend!