Kalpana One design (was Rotating space colonies)

On May 09, 2007, at 03:12 UTC, Chris Smyth wrote:

> Being a technician and admitedly behind the times in space
> settlement design I wonder if the inner workings of Kalpana One has
> been re-analyzed since the days of the O'niel Cylinder and the
> Stanford Torus studies.

The Kalpana One design began WAY after those studies. And it was just
re-analyzed in the last year or two (resulting in the revised paper
just posted).

> If memory serves me correctly, these included
> some rather detailed analysis of mass balance and recycling
> technologies.

Not all that detailed, but they did touch on that.

> I see a high LEO space settlement as a combination tourist
> destination and transit point for space workers going and comming
> from various work assignments such as servicing satelites, moon or
> asteroid mining and construction activities related to building more
> space infrastructure. In this respect it would be somewhat like the
> small towns that spring up aronund major interstate intersections.
> There would be a set of "local citizens" and a large number of
> transients feeding the economy of the station. Of course fuel and
> consummables resupply and spacecraft repair would be a big part of
> the settlement economy.

That all seems reasonable to me.

Best,
- Joe

Joe Strout -- joe@...
Strout Custom Solutions