Kalpana One design (was Rotating space colonies)

I agree with you 100% Victor. The first step is to provide a robust and
(relatively) cheap access to LEO. Secondly, we need a robust LEO
infrastrucure that can support the assembly and fueling of vehicles to
the Moon or other sources of raw materials. These LEO facilities will
also have to accomodate the assembly and fueling of vehicles to
transport prefabricated habitats, material processing facilities and
fabrication facilities to their point of usage.

The subjects of cheap access to LEO and the nature and means of
establishing a robust LEO presence warrant seperate threads in their own
right. The subject of this thread (rotating space colonies) is, I think,
oriented towards the development of a permanent rotating colony in HEO
(above the protection of the Van Allen belts) - probably in a 2:1
resonance orbit with the Moon.

At this point we don't have the means to directly access a HEO facility.
Thus, LEO infrastructure (inside the protection of the Van Allen belts)
is our only practicle "jumping off" point to send out the personnel and
prefabricated facilities that will allow us to create the infrastructure
for HEO and beyond. Fortunately, this LEO infrastructure doesn't need
the sort of shielding that facilities outside the Van Allen belts will
need.

I don't know if there are already active threads in this forum on the
topic of cheap access to LEO and the LEO infrastructure needed to
support activities on the Moon or HEO. If not, perhaps we should start
threads on these subjects. This thread on rotating space colonies
assumes that the prerequisite mining, processing, fabrication and
transportation facilities are in place to allow for the admittedly large
scale effort needed in the construction of such a colony.

Chris

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Victor Smith"
>
> Chris,
> I'm neither an engineer nor a mathematician, so I'll just have to
trust you on your figures. As to your scenario, though, I will comment.
First, It still seems to me that you are putting the cart before the
horse. At present we have One (1) damn flimsy space station (sans
gravity of any sort) in orbit and One (1) experimental Bigelow habitat
at half size. We have NO facilities on the moon, or elsewhere to provide
living space for humans, let alone to provide materials for the
construction of a large habitat. The first steps (and THAT is the
primary imperative that MUST concern us if we are EVER going to
establish a permanent presence in space), are to provide low cost access
to space for men and materials and to provide facilities for those men
(and women) to live and work in an environment that will allow them to
retain their musculo-skeletal strength...