Quote:
Originally Posted by DataPacRat
I can figure out that for a station with a mass of 10e15 tons, and a length of 650 km, then a long cylinder of a station pointing at the sun would experience about 467 giganewtons of tidal force; and pretending it's a simple rod, it would have a moment of inertia around 3.19e29 m^2*kg. But I'm having trouble googling up any comprehensible equations to see if that would allow for the station to be tidally-locked to the sun.
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That's easy. No, by definition it can't be tidally locked. A tidally locked objects rotates once per year, and this object rotates a bit more than once per hour. There are no stable solutions for 'spinning around an axis that is pointed at the sun'.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DataPacRat
I'm fine with 24-hour lighting, for this particular station. As soon as I figure out what direction it's pointing.
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If you want it to not wobble a lot, it's pointing along the same axis as its orbiting.