Re: Interesting concultural ideas

Andrew Chaney wrote:

> What about a rinh orbiting a sun, spinning at the speed as the earth with
> people living on the OUTside of the ring rather than the inside?
>
> It could be engineered to have the proper radius & mass to have a
> gravitational pull 1G (GMm/r^2, etc) and a rotational period of
> around 24hr.
>
> It wouldn't have to rely on rotation to simulate gravity. It wouldn't need
> to simulate day/night. It would be much easier on cartographers (no
> projection distortions to worry about). And would seem to be a much easier
> undertaking.
Hey, I have a better idea: why don't we take a sphere, fill it up with mass
to create the right gravity. Then we set it at a distance from the sun, so
it receives the correct amount of irrdiation, and we spin it to create a
day/night cycle. Then we let it orbit the sun at a speed that keeps it
exactly in orbit. It is somewhat tougher to map than your ring, but a much
more economical use of surface, since you could use all sides of the sphere.
Ok, the top and bottom parts will be somewhat less inhabitable, because of
the wrong irradiation angle, but we could tilt the revolution axis of this
sphere to compensate for that. It sounds like an ideal shape actually.
Anyone wish to comment?

Maarten

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