/sci/ - Science & Math

>>12547185
>>12547187
>>12547193
I hope I can settle this debate. O’Neil cylinders and orbiting space colonies are great and definitely should happen in the future...but the technology and infrastructure to build them doesn’t exist yet. Maybe not even in the next 50 years, even.

Before you build a 1 kilometer wide (which is small by O’Neil standards) cylinder, you first have to build a dedicated asteroid mining infrastructure. The first problem is that you need a relatively heavy asteroid because the small 5 meter ones that zip past the earth every week are too small, or on the flip side you have to round up dozens of them. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it will take years to even amass the amount of...mass...to put together said cylinder.

After this we would need to demonstrate large-scale and very precise manufacturing in zero g, which hasn’t happened yet and especially on this scale, will require A LOT of work.

These two things make O’Neil cylinders and Stanford Toruses very difficult to build without an already existing extraplanterary infrastructure. I’m not even going into the debate between “DUDE CYLINDERS” and “DUDE MARS”, but it’s evident that we at least need a sizable presence in space before we attempt to build a megastructure in space...which means that it’s likely (damn near certain) we’ll have boots on the ground of other bodies WAY BEFORE we build an O’Neil Cylinder.

>>10526165
You don't really need more than, say, 5000 people on board to maintain enough genetic diversity for the continuation of the human race without the effects of inbreeding.

If you were going for maximum space efficiency, build the thing like a huge tower; with powerful enough engines, you can simulate gravity by accelerating at 1g.

Without powerful engines, however, I wouldn't focus on space efficiency: it's more important to have a comfortable living space for the crew, so a pair of rotating cylinders with a variety of biomes and a carefully managed biosphere would be pretty comfy. You could also change the speed of the cylinders to simulate the gravity of your destination planet/moon, giving the colonists ample time to adapt to those conditions. You'd only need a cylinder 2 km across and 6 km long to house upwards of 5000 people, and larger ones would mean you have room for a natural population increase as the years pass.

Don't forget, these ships are also important in that they serve as safe havens for the colonists while they're getting the ground-based colony up and running. They might even house people in orbit for generations more as their host planet is terraformed, so you want to make a place that's nice to live in rather than packing everyone in like sailors on a nuclear submarine.

>>10012816
launching the supplies for moon bases, mines, and orbital factories/shipyards other companies create
building shit in space itself is dramatically easier and cheaper than building it on earth as you don't have to design it to survive the rattle hell of a rocket ride and are no longer limited on volume or weight
he has the big boy BFR coming up, which means 100 tons of building material or 100 personnel plus supplies per launch at dirt cheap prices
Space industrialization has finally become economically feasible and viable

>>9942954
>implying an O'Neil cylinder wouldn't be vastly superior
You can't beat something you can precision tailor from the ground up
if you want Bahamas beach resort 24/7, you can make it so
seasons never going above or below temperatures you don't like? done
want absolutely no pollution on your hab and instead have the cleanest air imaginable? done
want to have particular animals, without others you don't like? done
want to live a life without fucking mosquitoes? you can bet your ass that's done

space habitats will be the future home of humanity, not planets, for planets can't hope to beat habitats in making the perfect environment

9876715
>no customers
Planetary resources, deep space industries, just about every fucking sattilite company that exists, anyone and everyone that wants to put something in space, businesses that want to have their own space station for either industrial, commercial, or residential means
I could go on and on and on, and they're only going to snowball as one business builds the infrastructure that other things can branch off of
the orders are going to come like a fucking flood once they do their test demo, because it will show that they really are making the thing, and aren't doing the shit your bosses and promising everything and delivering absolutely nothing

No (You)s for shills :^)

What does /sci/ think about O'Neill cylinders?