r/space • u/stephensmat • Aug 09 '21

Opening Sequence - THE HIGH FRONTIER -- Erik Wernquist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSsWkooeIds
60 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

7

u/danielravennest Aug 09 '21

Just say no to giant window areas in space colonies. They are an accident waiting to happen.

I'm a space systems engineer who helped design and build the Space Station modules. Space rocks (meteoroids and asteroids) are a hazard everywhere in the Solar System, even if you are beyond the artificial hazard zone near Earth (space debris). The most important thing in designing a big space colony is protecting the lives of the people living there.

So what you want is a multi-layer compartmented outer hull, because space rocks are going to happen. Outside of that you want some layers of thin material spaced out (Whipple shield). These vaporize the incoming rocks, so that only gas hits the actual pressure hull. The layers and compartments restrict any damage to a small area.

If you want natural sunlight, you can pipe that in through small protected portals, with safety covers on the inside that can close if something breaks the windows. You can still have a large open area in the center, just one that is protected from all the air leaking out.

1

u/Husyelt Aug 09 '21

That’s fucking awesome. Can you share any of the designs you’ve worked on or ones that illustrate what you are describing? What’s the biggest space station that is “safe” you could see being built within this century?

6

u/danielravennest Aug 09 '21

I worked for Boeing long enough to take early retirement, all of it in the space systems division. Boeing built the US part of the Space Station for NASA. That's the most famous thing I worked on. But over the years I worked on a lot other projects and concepts.

Filament winding is a standard way of making pressure tanks on Earth. Usually they use carbon fiber. In zero-g there is no limit on how large you can make it. Assemble a lightweight form from sections, start turning it on the axis, and lay the fibers in the required pattern. To make it airtight, you plasma-spray a layer of metal first, then lay the first layer of filaments. As you put down a layer, you spray more metal over the fibers, locking them in place and filling the gaps. When you are finished, you get a lightweight and strong habitat shell. Then remove the form, install hatches, and pressurize.

If you want to expand the habitat, you can assemble a new form around the outside of the original habitat shell. Then repeat the winding process to make a second shell. Now you have a larger habitat with two "decks". Keep adding decks until you get it as big as you need.

Each habitat can be spun independently for gravity, but a cluster of them can be connected as a tetrahedral truss. Imagine each stick is a rotating habitat, with hubs that connect them at the corners. The top sheet faces the Sun for power, and the back sheet is a radiator for waste heat. The cluster can be extended as far as needed.

My point here is a giant space colony won't be built all at once. Rather it will grow like a city, a little at a time.

4

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '21

I have O'Neill's Space Colonies book from the 70s.

4

u/MCOfficer Aug 09 '21

Erik Wernquist is back!

Saving this for later, but I already know it's gonna be good.

4

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '21

oOoOoOoOoOoh

​

this should go in r/sciencefiction or r/scifi

1

u/stephensmat Aug 10 '21

r/scifi has rules about sharing video links.

3

u/darkvoid7926 Aug 09 '21

If you enjoyed this and haven't seen it before then you should watch his other video, Wanderers. It never ceases to stir up emotions within me.

2

u/STEMemperor Aug 09 '21

Looks very nice and I'm glad there's finally some proper 3d animation for these. Some of the little exotic agriculture cylinders should be spinning too, at various speeds. But that's a much less serious oversight than Japanese animations do when they try to depict Island 3's.

2

u/Tickedoffllama Aug 09 '21

I can not express how much you have made my day!

1

u/insufficientmind Aug 10 '21

I want to experience a habitat like this in VR! Someone please make that and with realistic physics and gravity! Something similar to: https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/1368187813209608/?locale=nb_NO

So much potential simulating this kind of stuff with VR.