Kalpana one

At 12:49 PM 5/18/2006, you wrote:
>why would it have to be attached. a mirror of that size could focus

One of the things Kalpana One tries to stay away from is large, co-orbiting
pieces of hardware that may collide with the colony. Basically, I don't
like catestrophic failure modes in active systems. I prefer minute to
minute survival to depend on passive systems, because they screw up less.

That said, as someone noted, the exterior hull of Kalpana One is about big
enough. One could cover most of it with light collectors and direct them
to the interior, at least in principle, although I doubt light pipes are as
easy to work with as electrical cables -- but I might be wrong. You need
some body-mounted solar cells for emergency power.