2AI Labs | Speedrun | SPINNING HABITATS - PROPOSED & IMAGINED

ROTATING SPACE HABITATS - PROPOSED & IMAGINED

For diameter d in meters, habitat populations very roughly scale as: d2/100


 DIAMETER SPIN  YEAR    DETAILS
========= ====  ====    ===========================================
STATIONS - Up to hundreds of humans
       4m   x   1998    ISS
       7m   x   1973    Skylab
       7m   x   2016    Bigelow B330
      12m   5s  1964    Discovery One - 2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
      13m   x   2019    Bigelow BA2100
      15m   6s  1974    Baseline L5
      30m   9s  1903    Konstantin Tsiolkovsky - first spinning habitat proposal
      76m  12s  1956    Von Braun Station
     110m  15s  2016    Kalpana Two
     190m  19s  2015    Gateway Von Braun
     200m  20s  1974    O'Neill C1
     260m  23s  1979    Drax Station - Moonraker (film)

KILOSTRUCTURES - TORUSES (mostly) - Thousands of humans
     342m  26s  2014    Cooper Station - Interstellar (film)
     458m   x   1966    Enterprise (saucer) - Star Trek (TV/films)
     500m  32s  2006    Kalpana One
     512m  32s  1976    O'Neill Island 1 - The High Frontier (book)
     537m   x   2003    Galactica - Battlestar Galactica (TV)
     640m  36s  1974    O'Neill C2
     840m  41s  1993    B5 Station - Babylon 5 (TV)
    1.0km  45s          Min diameter for human ear comfort.
    1.6km  57s  1976    O'Neill Island 2
    1.8km  60s  1975    Stanford Torus
    2.0km  63s  1974    O'Neill C3

MEGASTRUCTURES - CYLINDERS (mostly) - Millions of humans
    4.0km  90s          Max diameter for passive transit. Rim speed ~500kph.
    6.4km 1.9m  1974    O'Neill C4
    8.0km 2.1m  1976    O'Neill Island 3 - The High Frontier (book)
     16km 3.0m  1929    Bernal Sphere
     20km 3.3m  1973    Rama - Rendezvous with Rama (book)
     60km 5.8m  2013    Elysium Station - Elysium (film)
    120km   x   1976    Death Star I Star Wars IV
    160km   x   1983    Death Star II Star Wars VI
    200km  11m          Tensile limit of steel.

GIGASTRUCTURES - RINGS (mostly) - Billions of humans
    920km  23m  2000    McKendree cylinder
    950km   x           Ceres
  2,000km  33m  1997    Bishop Ring
  2,000km  33m          Tensile limit of carbon.
  3,500km   x   1969    Moon
  6,800km   x           Mars
 10,000km 1.2h  2001    Halo Array - Halo (game)
 12,700km   x           Earth. You are here. Probably.
140,000km   x           Jupiter
   3.7Mkm 1.0d  1987    Banks Orbital - The Culture (book)

IMPOSSIBLE STRUCTURES - RELATIVISTIC RINGS
    18Mkm 2.2d          Relativistic shearing. Rim speed 0.1% c.
    2.0AU 9.0d  1970    Niven Ring - Ringworld (book) - Rim speed 0.4% c.
    1.0LY   x           Time distortion.
    1.6LY   x           Tensile limit of space. Rim speed = c.


Dr. Timothy P. Barber / 2AI © 18 MAY 2020