any interest in a space habitat design app?

dont know how to help with your questions save that id likely try it.

one thing you would need to take into account is where the matterials
came from. you said the program would count the cost, but if the
matterial were from space what cost would you count? how many
manhours would you credit the asteroid capture company? If it came
from the moon, would you take into account the cost of the base?

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, joe@... wrote:
>
> Background: I'm a software engineer, working on starting my own
company, but also doing consulting to make ends meet. I also,
obviously, have a keen interest in space settlement. If possible,
I'd like to put these needs and interests together in the following
way:
>
> I'm thinking about writing a program -- part game, part serious
design tool -- in which you would design and simulate space
settlements. You'd pick the geometry, material, and other properties
of the various parts, and position them on a 3D view of your model.
The app would calculate moments of inertia, radiation levels, space
per person, and so on, and add up your costs (both initial and
resupply). You could experiment with natural vs. artificial
lighting, the rotational stability of different configurations,
external vs. internal shielding, and so on. During simulation, you'd
see the rotating parts of your habitat rotate, and could fly around
to examine it from various angles.
>
> The program would have two modes: in "CAD" mode, there would be no
artificial constraints on what you can do; you just design whatever
you want, and then it can generate reports and diagrams and whatnot.
This would be a big help if anybody wants to design a serious
habitat. (For example, unless my math is off, I think a recent
settlement design is too long by almost a factor of 2 -- this program
would have caught that mistake.) You'd also be able to fiddle with
fundamental assumptions in this mode, such as the cost of various
materials or how much pseudogravity the colonists need to maintain
health.
>
> In "game" mode, there'd be a serious of challenges (or "levels" in
standard game parlance). Each one has certain win conditions (e.g.
support 10,000 people with at least so-much space per person and
radiation levels less than 0.25 rad/yr), and constraints (e.g. a
limited budget and fixed material costs). You don't get to change
the assumptions in this mode.
>
> So that's the idea -- but it's a fair amount of work. I can't
justify doing it just for the fun of it; I just don't have enough
time. So (at last!) my questions:
>
> 1. Who here would be sufficiently interested in such an app to
cough up, say, $30 for it? Or, does anyone want to be the producer
(i.e. hire me to write it, and then reap the rewards)?
>
> 2. Does anyone have connections to an appropriate publisher (e.g.
Imaginova)?
>
> 3. Any other ideas for how to make this better, or how to make a
decent business proposition out of it?
>
> I really would love to just write it as open-source as a service to
the community, but just I can't afford that right now. Maybe it's
just not to be. But, if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear 'em.