Full G on the Moon or other small bodies?

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Combs, Mike" wrote:
> He basically proposed a Stanford Torus for the moon. I pointed out
> that such a massive centrifuge would require a huge, strong bearing

Actually that's a good idea. It would not be resting on the surface
at the center, since it wouldn't need to. The wheel itself would be
travelling on hundreds or thousands of bearings instead. That way if
an individual bearing went bad it wouldn't cause the whole thing to
stop. Or how about wheels with multiple bearings on each wheel.

> But this guy was asserting that something on the scale of a
> Stanford Torus could easily be built in this manner on the lunar
> surface.

I don't think it could *easily* be built, but it might not be any
more difficult than building a Stanford Torus in orbit. It might in
fact be easier.

> There would still be the drag due to the aforementioned bearings,

The question is how much energy would it take to keep it rotating, and
how much is this energy compared to the energy already being
consumed by the facility for lighting, oxygen production, etc.