Rotating space colonies

Hello

All guys are welcome to ask and questions or point out any problems in the design as it would only help us rethink and improve the design.

The 12 page revised version is a theoretical revision of the previous 3 papers but it doesn't include the various calculations for stability and dynamics and thermal rejection of the the colony. For that the AIAA paper must be looked upon.

Thanks

Nittin arora
Graduate Research Assistant
Georgia Institute of Tech.

From: Chris Smyth
To: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, May 7, 2007 10:33:32 AM
Subject: [spacesettlers] Re: Rotating space colonies

--- In spacesettlers@ yahoogroups. com, b wrote:

>

> If you go to the Spacesettlers list homepage

> http://tech. groups.yahoo. com/group/ spacesettlers/ or the ssi list

> homepage http://tech. groups.yahoo. com/group/ ssi_list/ there is a

search function that will bring up a lot of previous discussion on

this topic....

>

> B

Hi B,

Boy am I out of date about space settlements! I wasn't even aware

of the Kalpana One study until I saw the link today. I read the study

revision (12 pages) and I'll need to go back to the original study to

see what's in it.

The Kalpana One design (with associated supporting calculations)

has convinced me that it's the most practical settlement proposal

I've seen so far. One interesting comment in the study mentions using

material from NEO's (Near Earth Objects) to provide the mega-tonnage

of shielding needed for the settlement.

At the risk of sounding naive, I immediately thought of the earth

crossing asteriod that is expected to come within about 20,000 miles

of the Earth in 2029 (I think). Would it be possible to deflect its

orbit in such a way that it could be captured by Earth's gravity and

enter into an elongated Earth-centric elliptical orbit? Would such an

attempt be too risky - given that a miscalculation or malfunction

might send this object hurtling right towarsd Earth (I have visions

of Jupiter's encounter with Shoemaker-Levy Nine in mind)?

Any thoughts on this (pro or con) are welcome.

Chris