Re: Space Colony Starter Kit
Eric Hunting
But the notion of an LTA structure as an orbital settlement pre-cursor is sound -assuming your systems are analogs to a lighter form of prospective orbital structure. Advanced airship developer Michael Walden proposed the use of aerostats as near-space-stations almost a decade ago and for a while was pursuing the concept of making them pay for themselves by doubling as telecom stations and flying casino resorts. I recall that he was once talking to the developers of the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas about this and had proposed re-creating the imaginary Deep Space Nine space station as a aerostat resort. Seemed a little over-the-top to me as his simpler lenticular hull designs were quite elegant enough as a possible flying hotel.
I've come to call these flying manned stations and community concepts 'aerostadts'. Using dirigible technology and conventional lift gasses offering a higher mass fraction, it's possible to develop in a more incremental/scalable fashion, though it still has pretty large minimum scales for anything manned and we may have to wait for new nano-fiber composites to offer us the prospect of vacuum lift structures for this to explore permanently habitable aerostats in a comprehensive way. In TMP2 I explored this concept as a derivative of the Aquarian Airship technology for use as a telecom aerostat and modest platform for testing TransHab style structures;
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090502155817/tmp2/images/3/36/AquarianAerostat.jpg
Now, this design concept is optimized as a telecom aerostat but the vertical truss arrangement for a columnar stacked series of lift and habitat elements would probably work for a scalable manned high altitude station with a fair analog to orbital habitats based on TransHab type elements. Imagine a core truss that ties a vertical stack of TransHab modules to a vertical stack of much larger but still similarly shaped lift cells covered in flex cells PVs. Alternatively, a single very large spherical lift cell might be used, akin to the 21st Century Airships designs (http://www.21stcenturyairships.com/ see their spherical aerostat in the gallery section for a close analogy) which I've also been considering lately as the basis of soft-lander simulators for lunar/Mars telerobotic analog stations in the Atacama desert. Four light booms would support station-keeping fan -or at stratospheric altitude, plasma- thrusters. This would still likely need to employ some kind of VTOL airship with top-mounted docking ports for access and that would keep this at quite a grand-scale project. One wonders just how much one would actually save over just going to orbital deployment if a lot of very new technology still needs to be developed.
Eric Hunting
erich...@gmail.com
On May 29, 2010, at 5:41 AM, openmanufact...@googlegroups.com wrote:
> Space Colony Starter Kit
> Bryan Bishop <kan...@gmail.com> May 28 11:19AM -0500 ^
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: William Mook <mokme...@gmail.com>
> Date: Fri, May 28, 2010 at 10:38 AM
> Subject: [SpaceRenaissance-2478] Space Colony Starter Kit
> To: Space Renaissance Initiative <space-renaissa...@googlegroups.com>
>
>
> Buckminster Fuller was a scientist and engineer who developed
> tensegrity space frame structures. These are used to build things
> like geodesic domes, and the C60 molecule is called fullerene in his
> honor. One of the things he noted in building very large domes like
> the astrodome in Texas, was how the weight of the dome scaled with
> size. Dome weight is a function of area and area goes up with the
> square of the size. The volume of air - and so the weight of the air
> - goes up with the cube of the size. When you got aluminum and glass
> spheres more than 500 meters across the weight of the air vastly
> exceeds the weight of the sphere enclosing it. So, by heating the air
> slightly, the sphere can carry substantial weight. The weight of a
> small city. This was the basis of the Cloud Nine Tensigrity City.
>
> http://stevendejonckheere.blogspot.com/2006/08/cloud-nine.html
>
> These can be tethered to the Earth, or better yet, free-floating!
> Using the jet-stream to navigate around the planet.
>
> To me these always seems a starting point to building cities in
> space!
>
> To this end I've looked at my larger concentrating balloons that I'm
> building for my solar concentrators. These 40 meter diameter balloons
> contains 33,510.3 cubic meters of air. The air weighs 42.7 metric
> tons! The sphere itself is made of 5,026.5 square meters of tough
> transparent PET plastic film - similar to that used in sail boat sail
> cloth. One kilogram of this stuff - infused with kevlar fiber -
> covers 17.6 square meters. The stuff is tough enough to take 500 mph
> wind loads! It weighs only 285.6 kilograms 0.3 metric tons. By
> heating the air slightly a NET lift of 8.25 metric tons is produced.
> This is the weight of a fully equipped motor home!
>
> By capturing half the solar energy falling on the sphere - and using
> it to electricity at 60% efficiency - 377 kW is produced when the sun
> shines. Averaged over the day - 100 kW is possible.
>
> An Enstrom 480B helicopter masses only 825 kg empty and carries no
> more than 535 kg. The Rolls Royce turbine engine that powers the
> helicopter generates 420 shp or 314 kW.
>
> An electric version of this system, using fuel cells and electric
> motors is possible.
>
> http://www.wired.com/autopia/2008/04/in-an-aviation/
>
> Making hydrogen and oxygen from water and sunlight is what I do.
>
> http://www.mokenergy.com
>
> http://www.scribd.com/doc/25174645/Mokenergy-Brochure-2
>
> So, a 40 meter diameter transparent sphere supporting a tracking
> concentrator - that powers a multi-junction photovoltaic system that
> operates high temperature electrolysis at the focal point during
> daylight hours to flash water into hydrogen and oxygen at very high
> efficiencies - and store the hydrogen on board - while capturing the
> heat to maintain a large temperature difference between the outside
> air and air within the sphere - should be possible. The sphere
> supports not only the power system, but also a mobile home arrangement
> along with a docking system for two Enstrom 480B helicopters adapted
> to run on a hydrogen fuel cell - with hydrogen obtained from the solar
> power setup aboard the 'floating home'
>
> The docking system would adapt the hook and trapeze system developed
> for parasite fighters and used on bombers like the B36 in the 1950s
> and 60s dirigibles like the Akron 30 years before that.
>
> http://www.boeing.com/history/mdc/goblin.htm
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airborne_aircraft_carrier
>
> This aerial yacht would float at 2,000 meters (6,500 ft) when it
> wanted to visit a place - and use the helicopters to shuttle between
> the surface and the home. In transit the home would rise to 30,000 ft
> (the habitat has a turbine to maintain air pressure just like any
> pressurized aircraft) and ride the 100 mph+ jet stream winds.
> Doppler radar aboard and satellite communications allow for detailed
> planning of riding the natural waves of air circulating around our
> planet.
>
> The volume of the system and area is rather large. This suggest that
> perhaps plants might be grown around the base of the sphere -
> surrounding the pressurized cabin - using a form of aeroponics
>
> http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1859740/aeroponics_nasa/
> http://www.nasa.gov/offices/ipp/centers/kennedy/success_stories/Inflatable_Aeroponic_System_BBlinds.html
>
> Yields from enclosed aeroponic systems are such that all fruits and
> vegetables for a family of four is easily obtained from such a system
> aboard the home. It also adds a touch of green around the aerial
> estate.
>
> Ocean going yachts go for between $2 million and $200 million.
> Private jets run in the same price range. An aerial solar powered
> yacht nearly independent of the Earth below, should be worth as much
> as these, and give engineers the opportunity to begin building systems
> that will one day be useful in making cities in the sky, and
> eventually cities and colonies in space.
>
> A dozen test systems would prove out the various concepts, and once
> proven successful, safe and reliable, homes might be offered a few
> years after testing was started. Half the homes - outfit to the
> highest standards by interior design specialists - would then be sold
> at market rates (~$50 million each) or leased at this rate ($100,000
> per week) with experienced crew - trained on board - to earn half a
> billion dollars to expand on this program and begin building larger
> systems - Cloud Nine Cities - of 1,000 or more - where each home there
> is $2 m+ (or $4,000 per week). A city of 1,250 would generate $2.5
> billion - which builds an even larger city. A city of 10,000 at
> $500,000 each generates $5 billion in sales.
>
> Within 10 years we could be selling
>
> 100 aerial yachts per year earning $5 billion.
> 2 cities of 1,250 each per year earning $5 billion
> 1 city of 10,000 each per year earning $5 billion
>
> This income exceeds NASA's budget, and is about half that generated by
> companies like Boeing or Lockheed.
>
> Building a heavy lift launcher along with solar power satellites while
> including space colonies and space homes would be a logical
> progression along this development arc.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_habitat
>
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