Men and Women in Space

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Omar E. Vega"
>
> > that would mean that they entire group would have to come up with
> the
> > money before hand to expand. if they are busy paying for their
> > childrens food, they are not going to have the money for a new
> > settlement.
> >
> You assume space settlements are like ships: they are build once
and
> that's it. No, space settlements will be more like cities, designed
to
> grow, and to divide in two when necessary.
>
> That whay it won't be as expensive as you think.
>
> Omar
>

the only way i can see this is if they are either rings with more
rings added, or spheres added to a structure. the problems with this
are these:

1)if the station has to be moved for any reason, the bigger it is the
bigger the risk of a catastrophic.

2)rings would cause major stress if they are orbiting a little off
true. if one began to change its spin characteristics, it could
easily destroy the entire structure

i think it would be more likely that there would be clusters of
smaller stations, perhaps even losely connected in someway that
allowed wobbles and such to be minimized, or dampped out.