Quote:
Originally Posted by DataPacRat
I thought the main virtue of a ring was that it's much simpler to set up passive sun-mirrors to light up the interior, without needing to install a large electrically-powered lighting system.
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That wasn't mentioned in the design, but I have some doubts about the passiveness.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DataPacRat
Edit: With a ground-level atmospheric pressure of 2 bars, wouldn't that mean the atmospheric scale height is 80 km
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Scale height doesn't depend on pressure, though the pressure at the top is proportional to the pressure at the bottom.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DataPacRat
I can think of several reasons for this approach, and the only reasons I can think up against it are backfilled justifications involving handwaved long-term effects. (Well, plus the "reason" of the pure style of having a toroid the stars can be seen from. Maybe the sun-facing endcap of the cylinder could be a transparent hemisphere?)
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The rotational axis of the station, whatever configuration you use, is going to be parallel to the orbital axis, so neither end will be sun-facing.