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Posted by Von Fourche on February 25, 2006, 6:59 pm
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I just finished reading This New Ocean that covers the space age. I
really wasn't looking forward to the Skylab part but after I read it and
then googled up the pictures of Skylab I was happily surprised. That Skylab
looked pretty cool. It looked like a real lab. It looked big, unlike the
current space station that looks like stupid trash cans hooked together.
Anyway, everybody has seen old pictures from the past (like the 1950's)
with scientists images of what a space station may look like in the future.
It's the classic space station look - a big wheel spinning slowly around
(creating gravity), something like the space station in 2001 A Space
Odyssey.
My question: are those classic looking space stations possible? Would it
be possible with today's technology to build one of these stations that
actually spins around creating gravity? Would spinning a big pin wheel
shaped space station work?
What's are the negatives to such a station besides cost?
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Posted by Cray74@gmail.com on February 25, 2006, 8:59 pm
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Von Fourche wrote:
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> It looked big, unlike the
> current space station that looks like stupid trash cans hooked together.
Incidentally, Skylab-B, the second Skylab, could've expanded into a
series of stupid trash cans like Mir and the ISS.
show/hide quoted text
> My question: are those classic looking space stations possible?
Sure. You just need to be able to launch about ten thousand tons of
material into orbit and assemble it.
show/hide quoted text
> Would it be possible with today's technology to build one of these stations
that
show/hide quoted text
> actually spins around creating gravity
With today's technology, yes. With the available launch
vehicles...well, you'd need hundreds, if not thousands of rocket
launches.
show/hide quoted text
> Would spinning a big pin wheel shaped space station work?
Yes.
show/hide quoted text
> What's are the negatives to such a station besides cost?
1) Lack of need.
2) Lack of adequate launch vehicles.
3) Extreme cost.
Mike Miller
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Posted by H2-PV NOW on February 26, 2006, 2:02 am
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Von Fourche wrote:
show/hide quoted text
> I just finished reading This New Ocean that covers the space age. I
> really wasn't looking forward to the Skylab part but after I read it and
> then googled up the pictures of Skylab I was happily surprised. That Skylab
> looked pretty cool. It looked like a real lab. It looked big, unlike the
> current space station that looks like stupid trash cans hooked together.
Looks are not the important thing about a space station. Survival is
king, Functionality is prime. If it keeps you alive longer it is
beautiful.
show/hide quoted text
> Anyway, everybody has seen old pictures from the past (like the 1950's)
> with scientists images of what a space station may look like in the future.
> It's the classic space station look - a big wheel spinning slowly around
> (creating gravity), something like the space station in 2001 A Space
> Odyssey.
You already have gravity. The value of space is zero-G and high quality
vacuum. That's what space has and what the moon has part of. If you
want things to be "just like home", then stay home.
show/hide quoted text
> My question: are those classic looking space stations possible? Would it
> be possible with today's technology to build one of these stations that
> actually spins around creating gravity? Would spinning a big pin wheel
> shaped space station work?
> What's are the negatives to such a station besides cost?
The negatives are the parts don't fit nice in cargo bays or go together
easily wearing bulky space gloves. Every trip through the airlock loses
some air and air costs $10,000 per pound lifted on the Space Shuttle.
That means that every EVA requires the most work get done for each
in-and-out through the door. If they are bringing the air up in
compressed gas steel containers, those bottles weigh a hundred pounds
each empty, so the replacement air bottles themselves cost $1,000,000
to lift.
Pieces that go together fast, securely, easily, with uncomplicated
joinery, which themselves are lightweight and snug tightly together in
cargo bays are the cat's meow. Sorry if that upsets your space
decorator sensibility.
Are you sure you want to go to space? Maybe you would be a lot happier
going to Hollywood and working as a prop maker for some sci-fi movie
sets? Or maybe moving to West Hollywood with a significant other and
opening an interior decorator business?
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Posted by Michael Smith on February 26, 2006, 6:36 am
Please log in for more thread options Von Fourche wrote:
show/hide quoted text
> My question: are those classic looking space stations possible? Would it
> be possible with today's technology to build one of these stations that
> actually spins around creating gravity? Would spinning a big pin wheel
> shaped space station work?
Absolutely. Think about other major bits of engineering. Battleships,
aircraft carriers, fairground equipment. All big, complex lumps of
metal which experience stress.
Remember that the skylab crew created artificial gravity inside their
space station, and that was on a whim.
show/hide quoted text
> What's are the negatives to such a station besides cost?
Docking with a rotating station would be dangerous. Rotation makes it
hard to have more than two ferry vehicles docked at any one time
because each has to be at the axis of rotation.
Microgravity is one reason people go to space, it seems silly to do
away with it. OTH comments from moon walkers tended to suggest that
some gravity is better than none at all. Perhaps the station could have
1/100th of a gee inside.
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Posted by davon96720 on February 26, 2006, 9:00 pm
Please log in for more thread options The need to find enough users for it.
aloha,
davon96720
--
David Vaughn
5 Lokahi Pl. Apt. A
Hilo, HI 96720-5354
808-217-9282
davon96720 on msn, yahoo, aol
http://members.tripod.com/davon96720
show/hide quoted text
> I just finished reading This New Ocean that covers the space age. I
> really wasn't looking forward to the Skylab part but after I read it and
> then googled up the pictures of Skylab I was happily surprised. That
> Skylab
> looked pretty cool. It looked like a real lab. It looked big, unlike the
> current space station that looks like stupid trash cans hooked together.
> Anyway, everybody has seen old pictures from the past (like the 1950's)
> with scientists images of what a space station may look like in the
> future.
> It's the classic space station look - a big wheel spinning slowly around
> (creating gravity), something like the space station in 2001 A Space
> Odyssey.
> My question: are those classic looking space stations possible? Would it
> be possible with today's technology to build one of these stations that
> actually spins around creating gravity? Would spinning a big pin wheel
> shaped space station work?
> What's are the negatives to such a station besides cost?
>
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> current space station that looks like stupid trash cans hooked together.