[Spaceships] SM+35 Toroid Station?

[Anthony]

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.

That wasn't mentioned in the design, but I have some doubts about the passiveness.

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

Scale height doesn't depend on pressure, though the pressure at the top is proportional to the pressure at the bottom.

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?)

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.