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Re: starship-design: Hi, from a newbie



Sci wrote:
> 
> Okay, in my first Email, I breifly mentioned I was working on a modular
> vacuum walling system.  This seems a good time to elaborate a little more,
> as related ideas are in the "options" package, so to speak.
> If you're ever seen the toy Contrux (as I think it was called), you'll be
> imagining something close to what I've come up with.  A supporting frame,
> filled with gasket-sealed panels.  I've shown the concept ideas to the cheif
> designer where I currently work, and he couldn't see any glaring design
> faults.

 Nope -- Just TinkerToy and Lego and Mechano.
 I would like to see real docs (pdf? text?) on the design and use
and transportation. Accidents that destroy a space station are rare
but remodeling a space habitat could be common. What transportation
will be used. I am fed up with NASA and the USA gov for not making
it easy for the private sector to get to space.

> Anyway you have, say, a corridoor made up of panels and frame (perhaps
> Speedi-Frame would be another analogy?).<clip> Good idea.

Great a talking habit. Puter "You are leaning too hard on the wall
again".
I suspect a wall that would shield people from cosmic radiation
could use wire for networking as the network is behind the shield.


> The idea is something like your own body's nervous system.  The nerves in
> your arm tell you hot and cold, and move your muscles about, but they don't
> actually think.  The system still operates if you are sleeping, and even in
> cases of severe brain-damage.

I like this with machinery -- pumps,fans,filters... They work normally
with out control but external control can over ride the auto-magic
functions.

> I agree that electrical power could well be a safety issue.  Few things will
> run without it.  Life-support for one.  Emergency lockers situated at known
> intervals should probably contain some form of emergency space-protection,
> (from maybe NASAs "bubble" thingie, to a lightweight single-use type
> spacesuit), some method of communication, and power and oxygen cells.
> Oh yeah, food and meds might be good too. <=)

Life pods could be useful in construction or sabotage. Simple redundancy
would be sufficient in most cases. Unlike Si-Fi life in space does not 
have Kingons shooting at you.
 
> And metals are a lot easier to repair.  They can be welded, cut, rewelded,
> even under vacuum conditions.  Plastics however tend to degass very badly
> under vacuum, especialy in heat, and also become brittle in cold.  Certain
> types of rubber are better, and most of my panel ideas are designed using
> Viton-gasket seals, which are good up to about 150 degrees C.  If you need
> then to take more than that, it'd probably be a personal-vacant areas
> anyway.

Mind you if they get 'super plasics' that are stronger than steel and
lighter
this could change.

> Indeed it does, even if personaly I'd go for something a little less harsh
> than neon-green.  Who knows how long you'd have to spend staring at it?
What the console or the lovely girl?  Ok - less green for my next
console. 

-- 
Ben Franchuk - Dawn * 12/24 bit cpu *
www.jetnet.ab.ca/users/bfranchuk/index.html