From: utzoo!decvax!cca!csin!cjh@CCA-UNIX@sri-unix
Newsgroups: net.space
Title: re where to build
Article-I.D.: sri-unix.3394
Posted: Tue Sep 21 11:03:08 1982
Received: Wed Sep 22 03:56:05 1982

   Many authors have protrayed people badly crushed during space construction
because they didn't allow for the fact that what they were handling had the
same momentum as it had on the ground. Presumably this would be less of a
problem with girders assembled in space out of flat stock (among other things,
they wouldn't have to resist being crushed during launch), but would you
really be able to build lightweight structures if you want to spin them for
artificial gravity? Most of the descriptions of space colonies I've seen talk
about spinning to produce [artificial gravity] greater than lunar-surface.
Seems like you'd have to stress them two ways, since they'd have to support
whatever G you select and resist the forces necessary to start up and balance
the spin.
   Also, I don't think your 29,000-foot figure is a limit; that's simply as
far ahead of erosion as the collision of the Indian and Asian plates has pushed
the Himalayas. On Mars, still with twice the lunar G, a cinder cone (Olympus
Mons) has gotten up to 80,000 feet.