Human Outposts On Low Gravity Worlds

[Aetius]

I have always been fascinated by the Uranian planetary system. It seems dull to some, because the planet lacks the flash of Saturn or Jupiter. However, the fact that I will probably never see a Uranian orbiter mission in my lifetime just makes the system more mysterious and interesting to me.<br /><br />Anyway, my point: Ice worlds like Callisto and Titan are blessed with gravities similar to Earth's Moon, possibly allowing permanent settlement in the distant future. However, many potential colony worlds have tiny surface gravities.<br /> <br />Free-flying O'Neill space settlements (with their simulated gravity) at first seem like an attractive option to me for living on or near the smallest, coldest worlds of Sol.<br /><br />The good news is that water ice has the same structural properties as industrial steel, at minus 330 degrees Fahrenheit (the temperature at Uranus' distance from the Sun). The bad news is that millions of tons of building materials need to be transported from an ice moon, to a nearby orbital work site thousands of kilometers away. Another sticking point with orbital O'Neill settlements in the outer solar system: Too many of these relatively massive artificial satellites might create complex gravitational interactions with other moons, requiring costly orbital jinking of these titanic objects.<br /><br />My question: Do you think that O'Neill-style, spinning, simulated gravity habitats might be feasible on the surface of a small moon itself? I envision a spinning habitat disk, whose plane is parallel to the world's surface. It would be encased in a radiation shield, supported by massive structural supports and held aloft tens of meters from the ground below. That would create an open space in hard vaccuum, protected by the radiation shielding above, to construct large objects on the surface. The industrial sector and most of the space dock facilities would be located underground, without simulated gravity.<br /><br />Would it be more attractive to place t

 

[thalion]

I think a surface rotating disk habitat would be considerably more complex than than a free-spinning station. There's the issue of the inhabitants living at right angles to the gravity of the moon, however small, and the fact that the habitation must be constructed to deal with that extra strain. Then there are the unpredictables of moonquakes, impacts, and the difficulty of moving from a spun habitation to a motionless surface. I'm no engineer, though, and these are just my opinions based on what little I do know.<br /><br />If we're capable of carrying out such a project, I think we'd be better served creating a massive underground habitat, with smaller centrifugal units in which we could spend certain amounts of time at Earth gravity to keep from becoming totally deacclimated (and to stave off the attacks of a weightless lifestyle).

 

[Aetius]

Thanks for replying. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> I hadn't considered possible damage from impacts! Keeping most of the settlement below grounds seems like a good idea.<br /> <br />Ariel, which was the world I was thinking of when this idea came to mind, has 2% Earth normal gravity.

 

[scottb50]

What I see is a basic Station, with a central hub Module, eight, or more connecting Modules and four Gravity Modules that can dock to any number of identical Sections <br /><br />The whole assembly can be rotated to produce normal or whatever, gravity for the crew who live in the outer Modules. <br /><br />Each Section, or any individual Module, attaches to any other Module in two main ways; any Module can dock to any other Module using 8 Utility Adapters and two Module Adapters on each Module. If you dock a Utility Adapter you have a 4 foot access between Modules, if you dock with an identical size Module, end to end, you have an 18 foot opening between Modules. Connecting Modules allows storage in the core Modules and would probably work to adapt crews to different gravity enroute, put them at a lower level for a defined period, open bar of course, I would hope. Might even be good for the everyday crew, if you know wha It would easily be possible to disconnect a Section, match rotaion and dock, and let it do it's own thing, then dock it as needed. It could be really simple, no matter what they tell you.<br /><br /><br />Modules branch off to other Modules that are far enough from the center to provide artificial gravity in the Module at the end. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[Aetius]

That's cool! I'd never thought of interchangeable modules! It seems like a good way to decrease expansion costs. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" />

 

[trasone]

For very small worlds you could wrap a train track around the "equator", underground for safety, and set your modules to travel along it like a train at a fast enough speed to make the "roof" become the "floor". To get off either slow down the train or have a parallel track with a transfer module train that can slow down and speed up more easily without disturbing other passengers. This of course would lead to some thin stretched out outposts unless several very wide tracks were used.<br /><br />For larger worlds with gravity of their own you might try to angle the plane of the floor make you disk like this<br /><br />______| |______/ instead of<br /><br />|______| |______|<br /><br />so when you calculate the effects of spin and of gravity you end up with a force pulling you towards the floor.<br />

 

[nacnud]

Interesting note about the rails in that idea is that there would have to rails in the ceiling as well as the floor.