This is why I suspect that metal-matrix composites would be a better solution for structural elements exposed to space. Time to build walls. Soil depth is expensive. A person could detect spinward and antispinward directions by turning his or her head, and any dropped objects would appear to be deflected by a few centimeters. O’Neill’s project began in 1969. The configuration consists of a pair of cylinders, each one of 32 km long and 6.5 km in diameter. We have a lot of engineering experience with building large structures and ships with steel, and a lot of hard data on how well large steel structures and ships last over time. Ship is not made of O'neil cylinders. Oh! I think an interesting question is "what is the least radius for a habitat rotating to simulate Earth's surface acceleration that is practical for long-term human habitation?" And allows more complete static shielding. IMO this is the most inefficient and in-need-of-updating aspect of the classic O'Neill design, though. Or it could give up, huddle in a pathetic little feathery ball weeping to itself, and it would still eventually drift into regions of higher gravity and start falling again. Someone may have already mentioned this but I think using a "hub and spoke" type structure would be very helpful. How high can you build a normal building without reinforcing it? Here's some information on material strength issues. If I was not on a phone I would provide more links. To build a structure that size, we wouldn’t need to collapse all the planets in the Solar System, like we would for some of the other space megastructures. The O'Neill cylinder in the OP's linked study had a mass of roughly 80 million tonnes and a surface area of about 50 square kilometres. Other mirror configurations are possible, or artificial light sources mounted inside the cylinder. “First of all, there’s no point in going out into space if the future that we see there is a sterile future of living in tin cans. $\begingroup$ Well there is some mention of rotational stability in the link you provide: The new design fixes a rotational stability problem, which shrinks the settlement so the new population target is 3,000 residents. Instagram: @lawsofthecosmos You can experience this when you are o… I did some quick calculations, assuming a cylinder initially pressurized to 101.325 kPa, at a temperature of 293.15 and an initial density of 1.2 kg/m 3. In the absence of a gravitational field, we can simulate a gravitational force with the centripetal force from the rotation of the space station. KSR being KSR, you get a lot more granular detail than you would in similar fiction like Rama or Eon. And the day night cycle, don't forget that. True, but he obviously meant it in a broader sense of "kilometer sized cylindrical habitat". For ONC sizes, yes, the habitat would be lit equally. I'm no material expert but I think that could cause plenty of metal fatigue. Lewis One: A cylinder of radius 250 m with a non rotating radiation shielding. I still feel that we would be able to swap out materials as they wore out. Also, the "spokes" could be made of composite material with the outer shell being made of steel. Bodies of water would likewise probably be quite shallow. population density (6 per 837 cubic meters). … O'Neill cylinder: "Island Three", an even larger design (3.2 km radius and 32 km long). high and low altitude. At what angular velocity would the cylinder have to rotate to imitate the Earth’s gravitational field at the walls of the cylinder? Well, I'm wondering if this rotating cylinder can, say, have framing in a hexagonal shape on the outside (not ends), and use some kind of internal ties, along with lighter, less thick material sufficient to hold up between the hexagonal grid, or something like that, in order to both provide pressure retention (i.e. IMO this is the most inefficient and in-need-of-updating … The idea behind the O’Neill cylinder space station is simple. A compartmentalized approach might be the best if we want long term survivability. The space colonies from the "Mobile Suit Gundam" meta-series were O'Neill Cylinder colonies (most of them, anyway). If anything it was an O'Neill Cylinder that was tailored to fit the forces that longitudinal space travel would impart upon it, with the high wall on one side of the "ocean". In 1969 he taught undergraduate physics. O'Neill was a physicist at Princeton. Build 2 (or more) skyscrapers as counter weights. As such McKendree Cylinders with an interior gravity of one standard gee can have a radius of 1,000 km and a length of 10,000 km. (If anyone has any diagrams I'd greatly appreciate it). As in would you be able to live in the lower levels? Sadly, neither Orbitals nor Ringworlds are possible with ordinary materials, no matter how advanced they are, because the electromagnetic force (which holds molecules together) simply isn't strong enough to withstand those stresses. This would subject the materials to a lot of thermal expansion and constriction. His space station design is known as the O’Neill cylinder. I like the crazy cylinder vistas but a lower roof would reduce the amount of air you need t full it a then someone might what further reduce the view deviding sections with bulkheads for safety. The acceleration of gravity is 9.8 m/s 2.Give your answer in rad/s. The O’Neill cylinder is named after an American physicist and space scientist who sought to engage his students by getting them to think about big problems—space settlement, in particular. Instead, the floors support themselves with hoop stress. The cylinder is rotated on its long axis at ½ RPM (one revolution every two minutes) to simulate Terrestrial gravityfor the people living inside. Overall, I'd say steel is the best material...for now. As for the smallest rotating habs, the research I've done suggests 3 RPMs is a maximum, which is what I use for simplicity and utilitie's sake (1g=100m radius). The maximum size depends on the tensile strength of your building material. Its easy enough to unroll a cylinder, but getting the size right has been bothering me as I have been trying to get it to scale. Imagine habs with a radius of hundreds of kilometers! Despite the success of the Apollo moon landing, his physics students at Princeton were becoming disillusioned … However, the weight of a thick layer of soil would put a lot of stress on an O'Neill cylinder without providing any benefit (only the top meter or so of soil really matters) so an O'Neill with a "natural" landscape would probably have hollow hills covered in just a veneer of soil. Is there any weather in the cylinder? Individual colony pairs are known as Colonies, and a group of colonies that occupy a Lagrangian point are known collectively as a Side. My guess is 4 kilometer diameter is more realistic for long term high reliability and safety and we should think as low a 5 psi for oxygen enriched air pressure. All colonies in the Universal Century are O'Neill "Island 3" type colony cylinders, except for the "closed-type" colonies of Side 3. Why not put them where they were intended to go? Wind could arise from differences in solar heating causing air circulation. O'Neill cylinder is not designed to support propulsion. We desperately need a structures guy to join this thread. So far we've seen two space colony form factors that arose from a 1975 NASA-backed study. That said, there is also a lot in the book that is very specific to the time it was written. Can it rain, or are there gusts of wind? LED lighting did not exist when O'neil published. While teaching undergraduate physics at Princeton University, O'Neill set his students the task of designing large structures in outer space, with the intent of showing that living in space could be desirable. https://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/Kalpana/KalpanaOne.html being shorter than it is wide itis gyroscopically stable so it works as a single piece. I took a multi-layered approach to maximize the benefits of different materials for different needs. The skeleton would be heavier and last longer, the tiles would lighten the load and be easily interchangeable. 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