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Asteroid colony!!
Stories From The Cosmos Thoughts on the future.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Asteroid Colony
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Asteroid colony!!
Resource Maglevs
An idea i was thinking about while in bed waiting to fall asleep was how to utilize Venus's resources. The the rotation makes it a bad target for terraforming. It has plenty of raw resources thought on and under the surface. If asteroidial resources started to run low in the inner system the current civilization could deplete the atmosphere of Venus. The planet would be rendered airless as Mercury, which would make it cooler, dead and frictionless. Then the civilization could build sets of maglev launching systems on the surface(near the equator) which could launch mined resources(in resource sleds) from the surface to orbital velocities. The lack of atmosphere allows the system to gain all its orbital velocity on the track at the surface. The Maglev would be powered by solar collectors.
The System would be wholly automated from the strip mining to the launching and retriving of resource sleds.
A system like this could be deployed on Mercury much sooner too.
Rssource maglevs are the practical way to retrive resources from airless gravity wells.
The System would be wholly automated from the strip mining to the launching and retriving of resource sleds.
A system like this could be deployed on Mercury much sooner too.
Rssource maglevs are the practical way to retrive resources from airless gravity wells.
ओलोनिज़तिओन ऑफ़ Sol
Sun/Sol
#1 Energy Source. Dyson swarms collect vast amounts of energy for projects, such as wormhole creation.
Mercury
Mining Colonies, lots of precious and heavy metals here.
Venus
Possible terrafomation, take away all the excess atmosphere. Can't terraform all the way to earthlike due to incredibly slow rotation, though we can make surface life bearable and breathable.
If not, or for earlier time periods we can have floating cities in the atmosphere. Oxygen-Nitrogen atmosphere is a floating gas in Venus's atmosphere. A colony filled with air can be self supporting, with hydrogen supports for good measure, 50K above the surface of Venus. 50K above the surface of venus the pressure is 1MB(earth pressure) and the temperatures are earthlike. In fact, 50k above the surface of venus is the most earthlike atmospheric conditons in the solsystem. Users who go outside would not have to wear a pressure suit, only an oxygen mask and protection against the sulphuric acid in the atmosphere.
Earth
-
Luna
Is covered in Cities and Towns, with significant tunneling underground. Apollo Sites are sites of history museums.
Mars
There needs to be a city called Sagan on this planet. Terraformed in the story. Many Cities and Towns. Large population. Phobos and Deimos are cities and spaceports.
Ceres
Low gravity and spheircal shape make this an attractive place for resource gathering/ warehouse. Plenty of surface area to store things gaterhed in other areas, as well as resources itself. Has been a shipyard in many scifi scenarios.
Asteroids (belt, and other)
Can be the homes and living(source of sustainability) of may types of beings. Vesta has been hollowed out and transformed into an O’neill cylinder. 2 Pallas is the site of various burrowed cities.
Jupiter System
Jupiters atmosphere is too hostile for floating cities. Io is too hostile for permanet settlements. Io has a few science facilities. Europa is attractive due to large amounts of water. Ganymede is open terrain and resources for homesteading and so is Callisto. The other moons could be used like asteroids.
Saturn System
Saturn itself could be colonized with floating cities. Nice gravity at the surface and material to be utilized. Small moons can be utilized like asteroids. The rings need to made into a preserve. Under no circumstances may they be resourced or disturbed. They are too pretty. Enceledus is an interesting place, and has lots of volitiles. Titan is a facinating palce and will find itself effectivly colonized.
Uranus System
Uranus could be colonized with floating cities. Nice gravity at the surface and material to be utilized. The moon system offers homsteading and resource opportunities
Neptune System
Neptune could be colonized with floating cities. Nice gravity at the surface and material to be utilized. The moons, especially triton offers good oportunites for homesteading and resource utilization.
Interplanetary Objects
Plenty of asteroids and comets to utilize.
Kuiper Objects
Plenty of objects to utilize and homestead on/in.
Oort Cloud
Same as kuiper belt.
#1 Energy Source. Dyson swarms collect vast amounts of energy for projects, such as wormhole creation.
Mercury
Mining Colonies, lots of precious and heavy metals here.
Venus
Possible terrafomation, take away all the excess atmosphere. Can't terraform all the way to earthlike due to incredibly slow rotation, though we can make surface life bearable and breathable.
If not, or for earlier time periods we can have floating cities in the atmosphere. Oxygen-Nitrogen atmosphere is a floating gas in Venus's atmosphere. A colony filled with air can be self supporting, with hydrogen supports for good measure, 50K above the surface of Venus. 50K above the surface of venus the pressure is 1MB(earth pressure) and the temperatures are earthlike. In fact, 50k above the surface of venus is the most earthlike atmospheric conditons in the solsystem. Users who go outside would not have to wear a pressure suit, only an oxygen mask and protection against the sulphuric acid in the atmosphere.
Earth
-
Luna
Is covered in Cities and Towns, with significant tunneling underground. Apollo Sites are sites of history museums.
Mars
There needs to be a city called Sagan on this planet. Terraformed in the story. Many Cities and Towns. Large population. Phobos and Deimos are cities and spaceports.
Ceres
Low gravity and spheircal shape make this an attractive place for resource gathering/ warehouse. Plenty of surface area to store things gaterhed in other areas, as well as resources itself. Has been a shipyard in many scifi scenarios.
Asteroids (belt, and other)
Can be the homes and living(source of sustainability) of may types of beings. Vesta has been hollowed out and transformed into an O’neill cylinder. 2 Pallas is the site of various burrowed cities.
Jupiter System
Jupiters atmosphere is too hostile for floating cities. Io is too hostile for permanet settlements. Io has a few science facilities. Europa is attractive due to large amounts of water. Ganymede is open terrain and resources for homesteading and so is Callisto. The other moons could be used like asteroids.
Saturn System
Saturn itself could be colonized with floating cities. Nice gravity at the surface and material to be utilized. Small moons can be utilized like asteroids. The rings need to made into a preserve. Under no circumstances may they be resourced or disturbed. They are too pretty. Enceledus is an interesting place, and has lots of volitiles. Titan is a facinating palce and will find itself effectivly colonized.
Uranus System
Uranus could be colonized with floating cities. Nice gravity at the surface and material to be utilized. The moon system offers homsteading and resource opportunities
Neptune System
Neptune could be colonized with floating cities. Nice gravity at the surface and material to be utilized. The moons, especially triton offers good oportunites for homesteading and resource utilization.
Interplanetary Objects
Plenty of asteroids and comets to utilize.
Kuiper Objects
Plenty of objects to utilize and homestead on/in.
Oort Cloud
Same as kuiper belt.
Interstellar cyclers
Interstellar cyclers are a neat idea. Interstellar Cyclers are large ships/ vessels that acecelerate up to the speed of light one time, then stay there. They then go around a circuit of stars and use small transfer vehicles when they approch a system. As they go by systems they trade and transfer passengers and material with the passing star system. Over time the cycler builds up itself bigger from the continuous circuit. Such vehicles could become large enough to be like thier own worlds.
There would be numerous cyclers in a circuit so each star system would experience a transfer every few months, or even sooner. The individual ships however would take the years required to go from system to system. Once the ship passes an individual star system, it may not pass it again for hundreds of years. The loop could be (and would be) a two way system with ships going both ways. So if you were in System A you could go to System B, then catch another ship coming the other way to go back to System A.
http://www.orbitalvector.com/Interstellar%20Flight/Interstellar%20Cyclers/Interstellar%20Cyclers.htm
The Interstellar Cycler concept was envisioned by science fiction author Karl Schroeder in his novels Halo and Permanence.
No matter what technique you use, it takes an enormous amount of energy to accelerate a craft up to near-light speed. So much so, in fact, that it may not be worth an equal amount of energy expenditure to simply decelerate it again at its destination. The interstellar Cycler envisions a vessel that never slow down, but uses various techniques to effect turns around a local neighborhood of stellar objects to inscribe a rough circle. A cycler may visit anywhere from a handful to many dozens of star systems, and interstellar objects such as brown dwarves, before returning to its point of origin and completing a circle.
The inhabited systems it passes accelerates smaller cargo vessels to catch up to it and decelerate cargoes the cycler drops off. This way, no one star system has to foot the entire cost of building and launching the interstellar vessel; they only have to absorb the cost of accelerating and decelerating much smaller cargo vessels. The cycler also takes some of the cargo to slowly build itself up. In Schroeder’s novel, the original cycler started out as an unmanned magsail probe; after many centuries, it grew into a full-scale, fully-inhabited fleet of city-sized structures.
In Schroeder’s scheme, a magnetic sail (see the Light Sails article) is accelerated by an array of powerful particle beams out of its home solar system. It then deploys large loops of highly charged superconductive wires. These interact with the interstellar medium and galactic magnetic fields, using the Lorentz Force (the force exerted on charged particles in a fixed magnetic field) to very, very gradually turn the vessel. This is combined with other techniques, such as long-range assists from the home system’s particle beams, gravity slingshots, and on-board reactive engines such as ion drives, to slowly turn the vessel and align it with its next destination. After it reaches a certain level of velocity (about 6% lightspeed), it could perhaps use magnetic field scoops to gather hydrogen from the interstellar medium to power a bussard ramjet-like system that can allow it to turn much more effectively.
Its a matter of some debate whether affecting large, gradual turns at significant fractions of lightspeed is actually more energy conservative that simply slowing the vessel down at its destination. Obviously, the shallower the angle of the turn, the less energy would be needed, and the more significant masses it can pass to use for gravity assists would also be useful. Thus, interstellar cyclers would probably work best when used on routes heavily-populated with star systems and interstellar objects such as brown dwarves.
As a cycler passes a system, that system’s inhabitants use lightsail or magsail craft to accelerate cargo to meet with the cycler, then use the same system to decelerate cargo left off by the cycler. Th particle beams used to accelerate the cargo may also be used to help accelerate and/or turn the cycler as it passes through. The cycler ship is slowly built up as it passes from system to system and cycle to cycle, drawing upon resources sent to it by civilizations along its route.
As with interplanetary cyclers, it is very probable that multiple interstellar cycler craft will be used along any one route, staggered anywhere from a few years to a few months apart. In this way, an interstellar trading economy can remain viable even at otherwise prohibiting STL speeds, as new goods would be arriving regularly at frequent intervals.
An idea proposed by Jeremy Totten posits that the original cycler on a route can "reproduce" after it accumulates enough resource donations from its member civilizations. The crew of the cycler slowly builds up another cycler vehicle en route, and when complete the new vessel slows down and drops behind its "parent" ship before it accelerates again a few months or a few years later. The process is repeated as many times as necessary to create a fleet of cyclers for any one route.
There would be numerous cyclers in a circuit so each star system would experience a transfer every few months, or even sooner. The individual ships however would take the years required to go from system to system. Once the ship passes an individual star system, it may not pass it again for hundreds of years. The loop could be (and would be) a two way system with ships going both ways. So if you were in System A you could go to System B, then catch another ship coming the other way to go back to System A.
http://www.orbitalvector.com/Interstellar%20Flight/Interstellar%20Cyclers/Interstellar%20Cyclers.htm
The Interstellar Cycler concept was envisioned by science fiction author Karl Schroeder in his novels Halo and Permanence.
No matter what technique you use, it takes an enormous amount of energy to accelerate a craft up to near-light speed. So much so, in fact, that it may not be worth an equal amount of energy expenditure to simply decelerate it again at its destination. The interstellar Cycler envisions a vessel that never slow down, but uses various techniques to effect turns around a local neighborhood of stellar objects to inscribe a rough circle. A cycler may visit anywhere from a handful to many dozens of star systems, and interstellar objects such as brown dwarves, before returning to its point of origin and completing a circle.
The inhabited systems it passes accelerates smaller cargo vessels to catch up to it and decelerate cargoes the cycler drops off. This way, no one star system has to foot the entire cost of building and launching the interstellar vessel; they only have to absorb the cost of accelerating and decelerating much smaller cargo vessels. The cycler also takes some of the cargo to slowly build itself up. In Schroeder’s novel, the original cycler started out as an unmanned magsail probe; after many centuries, it grew into a full-scale, fully-inhabited fleet of city-sized structures.
In Schroeder’s scheme, a magnetic sail (see the Light Sails article) is accelerated by an array of powerful particle beams out of its home solar system. It then deploys large loops of highly charged superconductive wires. These interact with the interstellar medium and galactic magnetic fields, using the Lorentz Force (the force exerted on charged particles in a fixed magnetic field) to very, very gradually turn the vessel. This is combined with other techniques, such as long-range assists from the home system’s particle beams, gravity slingshots, and on-board reactive engines such as ion drives, to slowly turn the vessel and align it with its next destination. After it reaches a certain level of velocity (about 6% lightspeed), it could perhaps use magnetic field scoops to gather hydrogen from the interstellar medium to power a bussard ramjet-like system that can allow it to turn much more effectively.
Its a matter of some debate whether affecting large, gradual turns at significant fractions of lightspeed is actually more energy conservative that simply slowing the vessel down at its destination. Obviously, the shallower the angle of the turn, the less energy would be needed, and the more significant masses it can pass to use for gravity assists would also be useful. Thus, interstellar cyclers would probably work best when used on routes heavily-populated with star systems and interstellar objects such as brown dwarves.
As a cycler passes a system, that system’s inhabitants use lightsail or magsail craft to accelerate cargo to meet with the cycler, then use the same system to decelerate cargo left off by the cycler. Th particle beams used to accelerate the cargo may also be used to help accelerate and/or turn the cycler as it passes through. The cycler ship is slowly built up as it passes from system to system and cycle to cycle, drawing upon resources sent to it by civilizations along its route.
As with interplanetary cyclers, it is very probable that multiple interstellar cycler craft will be used along any one route, staggered anywhere from a few years to a few months apart. In this way, an interstellar trading economy can remain viable even at otherwise prohibiting STL speeds, as new goods would be arriving regularly at frequent intervals.
An idea proposed by Jeremy Totten posits that the original cycler on a route can "reproduce" after it accumulates enough resource donations from its member civilizations. The crew of the cycler slowly builds up another cycler vehicle en route, and when complete the new vessel slows down and drops behind its "parent" ship before it accelerates again a few months or a few years later. The process is repeated as many times as necessary to create a fleet of cyclers for any one route.
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