/sci/ - Science & Math

>>11786378
put it in equatorial low orbit and you do not need significant radiation shielding, which would otherwise dominate the mass budget

http://space.alglobus.net/

>>11706350
>This would lead to whopping ~7000 cubic meters of pressurized habitable volume with Earthlike gravity

Put in in low equatorial Earth orbit and you may get an almost Earthlike radiation environment as well!

>>11402628
Do it in equatorial LEO first, radiation environment is so benign that you save many tons per square meter of shielding mass. Then cislunar space and retrograde orbits around Martian moons.

>>10974449
>Also, who would be demented enough to put a space colony in LOW Earth orbit?! The fuel demands for stationkeeping would be staggering.

No, fuel demands are on the order of a few tens of m/s per year. They are negligible.

Also, equatorial low orbit is the best place for a colony because it saves tens of thousand of tons of radiation shielding mass. This is very significant.

>>10952820
Launch from the equator into equatorial low Earth orbit. Due to help from Earth's rotation this requires the least delta-v of all Earth orbits. And also radiation in this orbit is greatly decreased compared to higher inclinations or altitudes.

>>10949787
You need several tons per square meter of shielding to shield galactic cosmic rays. So think of a window that is several meters thick.

The only possible exception is in equatorial low Earth orbit, where mere hundreds of kilograms per square meter may be enough.

>>10887053
>>10886510

Correct, equatorial LEO is where it is at, see piccy

>>10857117
Earth first (in low equatorial orbit, pic related), Martian moons second, asteroids third.

>>10748890
speaking of sensible orbits, a little known fact is that equatorial LEO has an almost Earthlike radiation environment

http://space.alglobus.net/papers/RadiationPaper.pdf

in practice this could mean huge mass savings for any space colony