O'Neill Cylinders

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Brett

Question: is "O'Neill cylinder" going to be misleading if used in the common sense without explanation?

Why can't you explain it? Do you abslutely have to write a 100% linear text? Put in a footnote, referring to the end of the article where you explain the term, or add a "see glossary article: O'Neill" in paranthesis. Or go fully hypertext, with clickable links and all that.


And using O'Neill as a general term for rotating cylindrical space habitats that aren't too large (several hundreds of kilometers) is fine.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

My BLACK OPS players pointed out that other than the gravity variations, most of these could be had at a certain facility near Orlando, Florida.

I'm foreign. You can't expect me to recognise such oblique references to Disney World.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

Why can't you explain it?

Because I was writing a two-page introduction.

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by Brett

By the way, does anyone know of a suitable ray-traced (not artist's impression) interior shot for something like this? I'd like one without Island Three-style longitudinal windows, and without the Rama-style spikes in the end-cap.

Here is a render of a spin hab I did quite some time ago. You can see the fish-eye distortion due to the wide field of view - but that is inevitable if you are trying to take in a wide sweep of the hab at once.
http://panoptesv.com/Zoe/wheels/habitat.html

Luke

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

My BLACK OPS players pointed out that other than the gravity variations, most of these could be had at a certain facility near Orlando, Florida.

Not since 2385 they can't.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by lwcamp

Here is a render of a spin hab I did quite some time ago. You can see the fish-eye distortion due to the wide field of view - but that is inevitable if you are trying to take in a wide sweep of the hab at once.
http://panoptesv.com/Zoe/wheels/habitat.html

Thanks. I thought that having a point of view so very close to the inside surface would make the perspective very different from looking down a pipe, and am glad to see it's true.

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Not since 2385 they can't.

Good point.

[Daigoro]

What about high-speed flywheels at the caps of the tube to provide stability?

Also, when I was doing similar thought experiments and web investigations, I found that you need a very large radius to approach proper "radial" gravitation, otherwise you can still feel rotating frame effects. These include differing ballistic trajectories depending on the direction you're firing, vertical drops being slanted, and weight varying with your direction of travel.

There was a nifty flash animation I found somewhere for simulating dropping or throwing a ball in a rotating frame.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

What about high-speed flywheels at the caps of the tube to provide stability?

Good thought.

Also, when I was doing similar thought experiments and web investigations, I found that you need a very large radius to approach proper "radial" gravitation, otherwise you can still feel rotating frame effects.

I have 10 km radius here, and period 200 seconds. My reading suggests that that is ample to avoid dizziness, disorientation, and sickness. But there will be some noticeable Coriolis effects. A person running fast (10 ms^1) to the east will feel a 6% increase in "gravity", and a person running fast to the west a 6% decrease. The difference in long-jump distances will be the same. Rising in a high-speed lift (1 storey per second) you will feel a force of a 0.9% of a gee pushing you east.

I don't think it will affect anyone's Rugby skills.

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by Brett

I don't think it will affect anyone's Rugby skills.

If the pitch runs east-west, the east end team always is at a severe disadvantage.

If it instead runs north-south, play will tend to drift to the East side of the pitch, as it will be easier to pass east.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by ak_aramis

If the pitch runs east-west, the east end team always is at a severe disadvantage.

You always change ends at half time.

If it instead runs north-south, play will tend to drift to the East side of the pitch, as it will be easier to pass east.

I wouldn't think that would matter much. Players' ability to pass a ball for distance already far exceeds the range where it is tactically wise to do so. A long pass in Rugby isn't called a "hospital pass" for nothing. In any case, it can't be worse than beach Rugby. Nothing is worse than beach Rugby. Nearly lost a PC in a game of beach Rugby once.