Cities in space - Singles or clusters?

got it, now i see what you are saying.

the idea of it being in a ring is that it can use the joints to
compensate for the variations in orbit caused by gravity varible in
the earth, and influences of outside forces like the moon and solar
wind/light pressure.

any object in orbit tries to do one or two things (most of the time)
if its close, it will gradually lose its orbital altidude and move
closer.

if its far enough out, it will gradually move farther out (the moon
is moving a few centimenters a year).

something like this could maintain its exact altitiude by increasing
the kenetic energy to compensate for the drag, using solar cells
arrays angled to act as solar sails, without changing their orbits.
any change in orbits would be conpensated for by the joints. a
structure like this would take a very long time to build and once the
first set were build and working that way, there is no reason there
would not be more build connected to the first in the same type
pattern you discussed.

the idea of it orbiting the earth is that it would be started from
earth with only a few parts.

the first ones would likely be built in side an enclosed temporary
cylender made up of "ballons" and ice, just as one of the people here
discussed.

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, Darren wrote:
>
> Robert,
>
> Sorry, I think that I may have the wrong idea of what you meant or
you have
> misunderstood what I meant. I assumed that you were talking about a
ring of
> cylinders with each cylinder spinning on its own axis to provide its
> gravity, this would mean that each hab could have a different
gravity, the
> other option is that the habs were locked into the ring and it was
spinning
> around the Earth to provide the same gravity to each habitat, this
would
> need a very, very strong material to do this.
>
> Okay, back to basics, the ring you describe (assuming I have it
right) is
> what I refer to as a 1D structure, put simply it is like two
railroad tracks
> with habitats in place of sleepers, its just like a single line, 1
> dimensional. Curve the tracks around to form a circle and you have
your
> ring. My problem is that to travel from any hab to one on the far
side of
> the circle is going to take a certain amount of time.
>
> Take the same a number of habs in the railroad tracks and cut it
into equal
> bits, if you had 100 habs, you would cut it into 10 parts each with
10 habs,
> arrange them into a square and now you have a 2D structure, to get
from hab
> 1 to hab 50, you do not need to pass 50 habs, just 5 to the side
and 5 up,
> total 10, saving 40.
>
> Now you move into a 3D grid (my cube) and the trip time drops down
even
> further. The cube I was referring to is just a framework holding a
large
> number of habitats, they would spin on their own axis (equal number
one way
> and the other way, zero total spin) inside the frame, this gives
them
> whatever gravity was needed in each habitat.
>
> The reason for putting a number of habitats in a framework, be it a
cube or
> some other shape, is to provide the basis of a transport system, a
way of
> providing shielding and keeping a group of habitats with some kind
of common
> ground, be it a nation or some sort trade block or something else
that
> motivated them to want to stay together.
>
> My difficulty with your ring around the world, while a great feat of
> engineering is why do it? If you wanted to keep a number of
habitats in a
> group, then wouldnt a more compact shape be better or is there
some other
> reason from this configuration, is there some advantage that I am
missing?