[Spaceships] SM+35 Toroid Station?

AlexanderHowl · 04-01-2019, 08:54 AM

You only need 10 metric tons of shielding per square meter to provide shielding similar to the Earth, so 1 km of air at 1 atm would provide sufficient shielding. A shell of carbon nanotubes 1 km thick would provide more than enough additional protection to stop asteroid impacts. Even a TL 12 civilization would balk at the cost of a SM+35 ark and would probably rather go for 100,000 SM+27 ark.

If we assume an overall density (including static structural elements and static armor) of 1 metric ton per 14 cubic meters, an SM+27 ark will have a volume of 42 trillion cubic meters. If we assume a cylinder with a length 4 times the radius (and nonrotating armor and structural elements), you would end up with a length of 220 km, a rotational radius of 55 km, and a projected area of 2 million square kilometers. With 100,000 of them, you end up with a total projected area of 200 billion square kilometers. Even if only 50% of the projected area is habitat support, that gives you a total of 250 Earths in surface area.

04-01-2019, 08:54 AM	#13
AlexanderHowl Join Date: Feb 2016	Re: [Spaceships] SM+35 Toroid Station? You only need 10 metric tons of shielding per square meter to provide shielding similar to the Earth, so 1 km of air at 1 atm would provide sufficient shielding. A shell of carbon nanotubes 1 km thick would provide more than enough additional protection to stop asteroid impacts. Even a TL 12 civilization would balk at the cost of a SM+35 ark and would probably rather go for 100,000 SM+27 ark. If we assume an overall density (including static structural elements and static armor) of 1 metric ton per 14 cubic meters, an SM+27 ark will have a volume of 42 trillion cubic meters. If we assume a cylinder with a length 4 times the radius (and nonrotating armor and structural elements), you would end up with a length of 220 km, a rotational radius of 55 km, and a projected area of 2 million square kilometers. With 100,000 of them, you end up with a total projected area of 200 billion square kilometers. Even if only 50% of the projected area is habitat support, that gives you a total of 250 Earths in surface area.